LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



m^w^.. @]qn|ri# ^a* 

Shelf^y.O)>^_ 

.V2 

UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 



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THE 

TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS 
OF SCIENCE 



INTENDED FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND 
ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 



BY 

A. B. PALMER, M. D., LL.D. 

Professor of Pathology, Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Med- 
icine, in tke College of Mediicne and Surger}^, in the 
University of Michigan, Author of **The Sci- 
ence and Practice of Medicine," " Ep- 
idemic Cholera and Allied 
Diseases," etc., etc. 



^fe 




j^* O '- INTRODUCTION BY 

^ MARY A. LIVERMORE 




' WASH 



BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 



HVro& 



Copyright, 1886, 

by 

D. LoTHROP & Company. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introduction. The Need of Knowing the 

Facts 5 

I. Half a Century's Study of the Ques- 
tion 15 

II. The Production of Alcohol and the 

Composition of Alcoholic Liquors 2 1 

III. The Parts and Qualities of the Hu- 

man System .... 32 

IV. The Effects of Alcohol upon the 

Stomach ..... 42 
V. The Action of Alcoholics upon the 

Liver S^ 

VI. The Action of Alcohol upon the 

Lungs 62 

VII. The Action of Alcoholics upon the 

Heart 73 

VIII. The Effects of Alcohol upon the 

Kidneys . . . . . 87 
IX. The Nervous System and Narcotics 95 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



X. The Action of Alcohol upon the 

Brain, Spinal Cord and Nerves . 105 
XI. The Action of Alcohol upon the 

Brain, and Nervous System {con?) 117 
XII. Further Influence of Alcoholics 

upon the Brain , . . 130 
Appendix 143 



NOTE. 

Throughout this volume no opinions have been ex- 
pressed as to the particular methods of what is called 
"Temperance Work." Nothing has been said as to the 
propriety or efficacy of pledges, moral suasion, political agi- 
tation, or legislative enactments. Important questions are 
connected with these subjects, but the sole object has been 
to bring all, and especially young people, who may honor 
this little book with a perusal, to the rational conclusion 
and firm resolve, that in whatever form, as an article of 
" diet," of luxury, or as a beverage, alcohol is harmful ; is 
useless ; we will not take it. 



INTRODUCTION. 



By Mary A. Livermore. 



THE NEED OF KNOWING THE FACTS. 

LESS than a quarter of a century ago, our na- 
tion was in the agony of a protracted san- 
guinary conflict. To-day, we speak of it as " The 
War of the Rebellion." For four years the people 
of the North and South were arrayed against each 
other in deadly hostilities. And not until hundreds 
of thousands had been slain on battle-fields, or had 
died in hospitals, was peace declared. During this 
war, " recruiting offices " were opened in all the 
large towns and cities of the country, where men 
were enlisted as soldiers. For soldiers were in 
continual demand, not only to augment the army, 

5 



O INTRODUCTION, 

but to make up for the losses incurred on battle- 
fields, and in hospitals. 

Not only did the country need a large army, it 
needed an army of strong, sound, healthy men. So 
when a man had " enlisted," he was sent from the 
recruiting office to the "examining surgeon," to 
undergo rigid bodily inspection. If the surgeon 
found disease in the heart, or lungs, or brain, or in 
any part of the body, if the enlisted man had defects 
of vision, or hearing, if he had lost a front tooth, and 
could not bite off the end of a cartridge, or a right 
thumb, and could not cover the vent-hole of a can- 
non, if he was maimed, deformed, defective or un- 
sound in body, the Government refused to accept 
him as a soldier. He could not be "mustered in." 
For the business of war requires the highest bodily 
efficiency, and feeble or crippled men are not equal 
to its tremendous demands. 

Every young man and maiden of our country is 
on the verge of a longer and more important con- 
flict than were the soldiers of the War of the Re- 
bellion. For the world is a vast encampment, and 
every human being is a soldier, drafted for service. 



THE NEED OF KNOWING THE FACTS. 7 

No substitute can take another's place, nor can a 
discharge be obtained from the battle of life, till 
God grants it at death. " War a good warfare ! '* is 
the order that rings down the ranks from the great 
Captain who commands these hosts. 

Even more important to success are bodily- 
strength and efficiency in the battle of life, where 
all do service, than they were in the War of the 
Rebellion, where only a million were mustered in. 
For a good physical condition is one of the great 
pre-requisites to successful living. To live worth- 
ily or happily, to accomplish much for one's self 
or others, when suffering from disease and pain, is 
attended with great difficulty. The very morals 
suffer from disease of the body. " Every sick man 
is a rascal," said the great Doctor Johnson. 

The importance of physical education to the 
young cannot be unduly emphasized. For out of 
the schoolroom of to-day are to come the skilled 
workmen and women of the next generation — the 
physicians, clergy, lawyers, judges, legislators, mer- 
chants, manufacturers and navigators — all who are 
to carry on the work of the world. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

Civilization has already outrun the bodies of men 
and women. Its complicated work taxes body and 
brain almost beyond endurance. In addition, the 
self-indulgence of the age is so general and waste- 
ful that it creates physical degeneracy, and mental 
imbecility. It crowds the hospitals, peoples the 
asylums, increases the tenants of almshouses, fills 
the prisons, empties the churches, dethrones man- 
hood, and brutalizes alike the rich and poor. I al- 
lude to the indulgence in intoxicating drinks. All 
the while, the severity of the struggle for life in- 
creases, and the difficulties of earning a livelihood 
grow intenser with every generation. What is to 
be done ? 

The young must be taught the hygiene of intoxi- 
cating drinks. It must enter into their school edu- 
cation. They must be carefully instructed in the 
damaging physiological results of indulgence in the 
cider, beer and wine, so largely used as beverages, 
and which, in the main, become as destructive as 
the stronger alcoholic liquors. They must be trained 
to maintain serene dominion over appetite — to 
lead lives of wholesomeness — to practice rigid 



THE NEED OF KNOWING THE FACTS. 9 

total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. 
Plato laid down the rule that boys must not taste 
wine until they were eighteen years old. The 
early Romans forbade its use till a man had reached 
the age of thirty. The Spartans denied intoxicating 
drinks to their sons, and compelled their slaves — 
the Helots — to get drunk in presence of their 
young men, that they might witness the degrada- 
tion of drunkenness. Their great aim was to de- 
velop a superb physical manhood. 

Science to-day teaches that alcohol is not only 
not a food, but a poison. When we say a man is 
" intoxicated," we simply say that he is poisoned. 
For our word " intoxicate " comes from the Latin 
word " toxicum," which means poison. From this 
we have the word " toxicology," which is the science 
that treats of poisons. If one takes into the stom- 
ach meat, bread, potatoes, or other food, it is di- 
gested, and converted into muscle, brain, bone, or 
some other part of the body. Thus by food the 
waste of the human system is repaired, which is 
occasioned by the work of life. But when alcohol 
is taken into the stomach, that organ resents its 



lO INTRODUCTION. 

intrusion, and drives it into the liver, which, in turn, 
forces it to the heart, and that throws it into the 
lungs — and so it goes on, in its unwelcome and 
compulsory tour through the body. Every organ 
rejects and expels it, the liver, bowels, kidneys, 
lungs and skin all throwing out a portion of it, un- 
til the system is rid of it. In this process of ex- 
pulsion, every organ, by and by, becomes seriously 
damaged. 

At last, both body and mind are ruined. The 
perceptions are bewildered, the memory weakened, 
the reasoning power clouded, the moral sense be- 
numbed, the will dethroned, the self-respect dead, 
and there is no vice or crime to which the victim 
is not liable. A terrible dipsomania is established, 
when there is only an insatiate craving for alcohol, 
that knows no bounds, and for which there is 
rarely any cure. 

When to the wreck of the individual are added 
the appalling facts that four fifths of all the crimi- 
nals in the prisons, four fifths of all the paupers 
in the almshouses, three fifths of the insane in 
asylums, and one half of the idiots are the direct 



THE NEED OF KNOWING THE FACTS. II 

products of Strong drink, how ghastly is the record ! 
Ought not these facts to constitute a powerful 
array of reasons why the youth of to-day should 
vow in high honor absolute and life-long aloofness 
from all that can intoxicate ? 



THE TEMPERANCE TEACH- 
INGS OF SCIENCE. 



THE TEMPERANCE TEACH- 
INGS OF SCIENCE. 



CHAPTER I. 

HALF A century's STUDY OF THE QUESTION". 

I HAVE been requested to state to the young 
people of our country some things that I know, 
and that many of them may not, respecting the 
drinks called spirituous and fermented liquors, that 
many people use. It is thought by good and wise 
men and women, that young persons should be in- 
structed about these liquors, because through ig- 
norance of their nature and effects multitudes 
begin to drink them, and acquire a love for them, 
which goes on increasing the more they are 
used, until very great injury is done to the 
bodies, minds, and character of those who take 
them ; a great deal of poverty, distress and mis- 
ery is produced in families, neighborhoods and 
towns, many crimes are committed, and a vast 

amount of evil of different kinds is spread over 

15 



1 6 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

the whole country, and a large part of the world. 
It is important that young persons should have 
correct views of all matters pertaining to their wel- 
fare, their happiness and usefulness in after life. 
In my own case, strong impressions were made 
upon my mind respecting these drinks when I was 
a small boy, and these impressions have had an in- 
fluence upon my whole long life. In the first years 
of my going to school in the country town where I 
was born, now a favorite summer resort in the in- 
terior of New York, I passed by a house where a 
man lived who was frequently drunk. When so, 
he was apt to be boisterous, staggering about and 
abusing his poor, heart-broken wife. Whenever I 
saw him, or heard him, in that condition, I was 
terribly frightened, and hurried past the place as 
fast as I could. In a few years after my first re- 
membrance of these frights the poor wife died, 
when her husband gave himself entirely up to 
drinking. In a dark, rainy night after drinking 
freely at one country tavern, he was sent out, and 
was going to another. On his way he fell down by 
the side of a little ditch, and apparently, in his at- 



HALF A century's STUDY OF THE QUESTION. 1 7 

tempt to get up, he fell over upon his back in the 
narrow ditch, in which, from the rain, water was 
running. Owing to the weakness produced by in- 
toxication, he was unable to rise ; and his body- 
damming up the stream, the water ran over his 
head, and he was drowned. The next day his body 
was found, and as there was no morgue in the coun- 
try — no place such as there is in many cities, where 
friendless or unknown bodies are taken, when found, 
the body was brought to my mother's house, which 
was near. A coroner's court was there held to de- 
termine the cause of death. The jury said it was 
accidental drowning. No one was blamed. The . 
sad funeral occurred, and nothing was said at that 
funeral of the evils of drink, or the blame of drink- 
ing or selling it, though the young man that sold 
this drunkard the liquor and sent him out in the 
night, saw clearly afterwards how wrong it was ; 
and for many years, though he repented and trusted 
God had forgiven him, he wore on his conscience 
a burden of " bloodguiltiness " for having a part in 
that terrible death. 

The horror of that whole affair haunted me like 



1 8 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

an evil spirit for many months after. But one day 
an old friend of my father's, a member of the same 
church, called on a friendly visit at my mother's 
house. My oldest brother, who was then the head 
of the family, brought out, as was the general cus- 
tom, a decanter of liquor and offered the visitor. 
He politely said, " I thank you for what you intend 
as a kindness, but I have concluded to drink no 
more liquor." In reply to the surprise which all 
countenances expressed, he said, "I know this 
liquor does an immense amount of harm, I believe^ 
as a beverage, it does no good, and therefore I shall 
take it no more." 

I saw at once, boy as I was, that if his premises 
were correct, his conclusion was logical, and the 
only one to which a good man could consistently 
come. This was the first temperance argument I 
had ever heard. I was most painfully sensible of 
the harm that liquor had done, though I had but 
the dimmest conception of its extent, and if it 
really did no good — if it did not help the harvest 
men to do their work better, if the " bitters " taken 
in the morning and " toddy " at night, did not im- 



HALF A century's STUDY OF THE QUESTION. 1 9 

prove the health and strength — if liquor did not 
warm the body when it was cold, nor protect it from 
the effects of heat — if it was really useless as a 
beverage, it seemed to me the argument was con- 
clusive, overwhelmingly so, in favor of abstaining 
from it. 

I soon began to inquire, to observe, and to think 
about these propositions : Is it useless ? In what 
manner and to what extent is it harmful ? What 
is it in the liquor that does the harm, or does not do 
the good ? How are its evils to be prevented ? 

These are not trivial questions. They are worthy 
of the most careful and protracted consideration 
of any mind. They have received no inconsider- 
able portion of my attention for more than fifty 
years. When I was still quite young I studied 
chemistry, as it was then taught, and learned what 
the article in liquors that produces these effects 
was. I learned that it was called alcohol — I 
learned of what it was composed, and how it was 
produced. I afterwards studied anatomy, physio- ' 
logy, pathology and therapeutics ; that is, I studied 
the structure of the body, what it does in health, 



20 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

what happens to it in disease ; how and by what it 
is injured ; how injuries are to be prevented, and 
how, when they occur, they are to be mitigated or 
removed. In other words, I studied to be a doc- 
tor ; and after I had completed a certain course of 
study I commenced practising as a doctor, and 
afterwards I tried to teach others the science and 
art of medicine ; and all through these studies, this 
experience, and these teachings, I have made care- 
ful observations, have tried some experiments, and 
read accounts of many others, respecting alcohol ; 
have studied the subject at home and in oihei 
countries, and I now propose to tell you some of 
the things that I know about it, and believe to be 
very important truths. 

When we get through, we shall see whether we 
do not come to the conclusion that the statement, 
the belief, and the conclusion of the first temper- 
ance argument that I ever heard were correct : A/- 
cohol is harmful; it is useless ; we will not take it. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL AND THE COMPO- 
SITION OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS. 

THE article in all intoxicating drinks that 
does the harm is called Alcohol, I propose 
to tell you what it is, how it is produced, where it 
is found, and what it does when taken into peo- 
ple's stomachs. 

Alcohol is a thin, colorless liquid, lighter than 
water, more easily evaporated, and boiling, which 
makes it into a vapor, at a lower temperature than 
water. When touched with a burning match it is 
5et on fire and burns with a blue flame, producing 
much heat and but a little light. You may have 
seen it burning in a spirit lamp. It is a ver}^ defi- 
nite chemical compound, and is the same wherever 
found. Its character is not changed by anything 
with which it is mixed, and it continues the same, 
unless it is burned up or destroyed. Those of you 

21 



22 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS GF SCIENCE. 

who have studied chemistry, have learned that 
there are a few original or simple elements which 
when combined together in various proportions form 
all the ordinary substances we see and use. There 
are four substances or elements which, when com- 
bined, form the chief part of all our foods, and only 
three of these enter into the composition of some 
articles which we take. 

These four elements are called oxygen, carbon, 
hydrogen, and nitrogen. When each of these sub- 
stances is alone, three of them, oxygen, hydrogen, 
and nitrogen, are gases, without color and invisible, 
like the air we breathe, or the gas we burn for 
lights. Indeed, the air is composed of two of these, 
oxygen and nitrogen. Carbon, when alone, is a 
solid substance. It is almost pure in charcoal and 
in lampblack, and is quite pure in the diamond. 
When, however, it is combined with the other sub- 
stances, its compounds take different forms — some- 
times the form of gas, sometimes the form of liq- 
uids, and sometimes the form of solids. When 
combined with a certain proportion of oxygen it 
forms carbonic acid gas, which bubbles off in a 



THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 23 

glass of soda water. When united with a certain 
proportion of oxygen and hydrogen it forms sugar, 
a solid, sweet substance, as you know ; and when 
united with the same oxygen and hydrogen, but in 
different proportions, it forms alcohol — this liquid 
that we are to find out about. 

Now, then, the different substances mentioned 
and many others, though formed from the same 
elements but in different proportions, have, many 
of them, entirely different appearances, properties, 
and effects — are all quite different materials. 
These are chemical facts which many people do 
not understand ; hence they make mistakes when 
they talk about alcohol. Some, in their ignorance, 
say it is in all our food, that it must be in grain or 
it could not be got out of it, that our food is changed 
into alcohol in our stomachs, and various other ab- 
surd things. It does not exist anywhere in Nature^ 
either in grain, or fruit, or anything else. 

But you are desirous of knowing from what and 
how alcohol is produced. It is always produced 
from sugar^ by an artificial p7'0 cess. 

When grape sugar — the sweet substance exist- 



24 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

ing in grapes and various other fr.uits — is dissolved 
and diluted in water, and at the ordinary tempera- 
ture of the air, and has a particle of yeast added, 
a change goes on in it. It " works," as it is said. 
I have already indicated that sugar is composed of 
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in certain propor- 
tions, and have said that when the proportions of 
the elements in a substance were changed the na- 
ture of the product was changed, often completely. 
Now, in this " working," such a change takes place 
in the elements of the sugar, by changes in their 
proportions and relations, that the sugar is de- 
stroyed, as sugar, as much as wood is destroyed 
when it is burned — that is, it is changed in the 
form and character of its substance ; and instead 
of sugar we have two new substances produced, al- 
cohol, a liquid, and carbonic acid, a gas. The car- 
bonic acid passes off in the bubbles, as the liquid — 
cider, for instance — " works ; " but the alcohol re- 
mains in the cider, having a strong affinity for the 
water that is present. 

When common cane or maple sugar is dissolved 
and largely diluted with water, and yeast is added, 



THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 25 

the sugar is first slightly changed from cane to what 
is called grape sugar, and then into alcohol and 
carbonic acid, as in the other case. Also when 
pure starch is taken, or when grain, or rice, or po- 
tatoes, all of which contain starch, are ground up 
and mixed with water, and yeast is added, fermen- 
tation takes place ; the starch is first changed to 
sugar, and then to alcohol and carbonic acid, as in 
the case of the fruit juice, and of the sugar and 
water. 

In the yeast which produces these changes are 
living plants, so small they cannot be seen without 
a magnifying glass ; these multiply rapidly, when 
they are in a proper vehicle, as the sugar and water, 
or starch and water, and cause all this " working ^' 
and change. Now these little plants do not have 
leaves and roots like larger plants that grow from 
the ground, nor do they have flowers and seeds, like 
many larger plants. They are more like mush- 
rooms, but not of their shape. They are only little 
rod-shaped particles, linked together and sometimes 
branching off, something like old treetops. 

There are many such very small, living, growing 



26 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

bodies, some very much smaller than the common 
yeast plant, found in common water, and floating in 
the air ; and they produce particles much smaller 
than themselves, which serve a similar purpose to 
seeds of larger flowering plants ; and these, which 
are called spores^ are so very small they go into al- 
most every place where the air goes, and they get 
into apple juice and grape juice, when it is exposed 
to the air, and grow up into the little plants, and 
cause fermentation ; so that it is not necessary to 
add yeast to apple juice to produce fermentation 
and alcohol. In fermenting grain, to make beer 
or whiskey, yeast is added to cause the changes. 

To make strong alcoholic cider out of apple 
juice, all that is necessary is to leave it in the bar- 
rels, and to give it vent by the bung when it 
" works." 

To make wine, the grapes are crushed and left in 
tubs or vats when the fermentation takes place ; 
the skins and seeds of the grapes settle to the bot- 
tom, and are called lees^ and the wine is drawn or 
dipped off and put in casks or bottles, where in 
time other slight changes take place, which produce 



THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 27 

particular flavors ; but the alcohol produced from 
the sugar remains the same, and there is more oi* 
less of it, according to the amount of sugar which 
is fermented and changed. 

In making beer grain is used, mostly barley. 
Some of the barley is moistened and kept in a warm 
place until it sprouts, or sends out little roots. In this 
process much of the starch in the grain is changed 
into sugar. Then the sprouted barley is dried and 
roasted, and this is called Malt. The malt is mixed 
with other ground grain and hops, and sometimes 
aloes, quassia, and other bitter things are added, 
the whole is heated together, and yeast is put in — 
brewers' yeast — the fermentation takes place, the 
same alcohol is formed, and the liquid is put up in 
casks or bottles, like the wine. 

Whiskey is made by treating the grain in a simi- 
lar manner, but no hops are added ; and when the 
fermentation has taken place and the alcohol is 
formed, instead of leaving it in that condition, it is 
all put in a still, or a large boiler with a tight cover, 
but with a tube or pipe attached, making altogether 
what is called a retort. This tube extends on and 



28 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

is twisted round into a large coil, or " worm," whicli 
is placed in a tub, into which cold water is con- 
stantly running — the tube passing out of this and 
emptying into a vessel. Heat is now applied to 
the retort, or boiler, and the alcohol which is in the 
water with the remains of the grain, being lighter 
and more readily formed into vapor, passes up into 
the tube and is cooled in the coil in the water, so 
as to come into the liquid form again, and runs out 
into the vessel to receive it. Some steam from the 
water passes over with the alcohol and is condensed 
and discharged with it, and the whole, after proper 
rectifying, constitutes whiskey. 

To get more pure alcohol separated from the 
water and any remains of the grain, repeated dis- 
tillations are necessary. You see by these state- 
ments, that distillation does not produce the al- 
cohol, but merely separates it from other substan- 
ces. 

Genuine brandy is made by distilling wine, or 
the fermented products of the grape. Rum is made 
by the distillation of the fermented products of the 
sugar cane ; gin, by distilling grain products like 



THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 29 

the whiskey, with the addition of juniper berries and 
leaves, or the oil of turpentine, to give it a peculiar 
flavor. 

Whiskey, gin, rum, and brandy are called Arderu 
Spirits, They all contain alcohol and water, in 
nearly equal proportions. What is called proof 
spirit contains fifty parts in a hundred of pure al- 
cohol by measure. 

Pure, or genuine wine from fermentation of grape- 
juice, contains from ^\^ to sixteen parts in a hun- 
dred of pure alcohol ; but the wines in the market 
sometimes have twenty-five parts in a hundred of 
the alcohol, as more alcohol is added to it, after 
the grape juice is fermented. 

Beer contains from four or five to twelve or more 
parts of alcohol in a hundred ; and cider nearly the 
same, according to the amount of sugar contained 
in the apples of which it was made. 

Current wine, elderberry, and other wines are 
sometimes made and drunk even by temperance 
people, who do not know they contain the same 
alcohol as whiskey. Some juice of th^ berries is 
mixed with water and sugar and allowed to ferment, 



30 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

often producing a strong alcoholic liquor. This is 
just as bad as any other drink which has the same 
amount of alcohol in it. 

Alcohol readily mixes with many things besides 
water. It dissolves resins, making varnishes, and 
also essential oils, such as the oil of peppermint, 
cinnamon, etc., making essences. It also dissolves 
the active medicinal principles of many drugs, mak- 
ing tinctures ; and it is used for making various med- 
icines and coloring materials where the alcohol is 
driven off before they are finished. It is thus, like 
various other poisons, such as lead, arsenic, mer- 
cury, aqua fortis, etc., useful in the arts ; but this 
does not prove that it is innocent when used in 
any of its mixtures as a drink. 

I have taken so much space to tell about the pro- 
duction of alcohol, because I think it important 
that all should understand about it. It is partic- 
ularly important to know that distilling — making 
the alcohol into vapor by heat, and bringing it 
back to the liquid form by cold — does not change 
its character. Water is sometimes distilled in a 
retort to separate it from other things, but when it 



THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 3 1 

comes from steam into liquid again, it is the same 
water. A kind of distillation is going on around 
us with water all the time. It goes up in vapor 
from the earth and the sea, and comes down in 
dew and rain, the same water that rises. So the 
alcohol that is made into vapor and brought back 
to a liquid in a still is the same thing, unchanged. 
I said alcohol was the same wherever it was 
found. It is the same in wine and beer as in 
whiskey and brandy ; and the drunk-making qual- 
ity of any liquor depends upon the amount of al- 
cohol it contains. A glass of very strong wine 
will produce essentially the same effect as the 
same glass filled with half whiskey and half water. 
A glass of weaker wine containing twelve and a 
half parts of alcohol in a hundred^ would be equal 
to a glass of whiskey and water that has twice as 
much water in it as the last. Other things in the 
wine and beer make them taste differently, but the 
effects in the blood and upon the brain and the 
nerves are the same — there is no difference in 
drinking wine or beer, and in drinking whiskey or 
brandy with a certain amount of water added. 



CHAPTER IIL 

PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 

THE subject of the effects of alcohol upon the 
living body is one of very great interest and 
importance, and its importance is now recognized 
by very many people. That the use of alcoholic 
liquors as beverages is liable to do, and actually 
does in thousands of cases, all the harm so forcibly 
stated in the preface by Mrs. Livermore, no one 
who has common intelligence on the subject will 
deny. But many persons think, or at least say, 
and act as though they believed, that indulgence 
in a quantity of alcoholic liquors not " excessive," 
is at least innocent ; and some will even say, bene- 
ficial. Those who think this true very naturally 
oppose restrictions upon the use of such liquors, 
or any rigid restrictions upon their sale. They are 
apt to say that they and others ought not to be 

32 



PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 33 

prevented from the use of articles good for them, 
because some abuse them. I have heard men say 
it would be as proper to condemn and prevent 
the use of water, because some drink too much of 
it, as to condemn and interfere with the use of al- 
coholic liquors, because some use too much of these. 
They must admit that the common practice and 
example of drinking lead many to excessive indul- 
gence and ruin ; and they know that St. Paul 
said, that if eating meat should cause his brother to 
offend, he would abstain from eating so innocent 
a thing as meat while the world should stand. 
They must acknowledge that they have not as high 
a standard of moral and Christian conduct as St. 
Paul, but would rather ask with another character 
in Scripture history, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 
If alcoholic liquors are good as drinks, there is 
at least a question as to whether they should be 
unsparingly denounced, and their use and sale 
forbidden or restricted. If, however, they are use- 
less, and especially if they are injurious and dan- 
gerous as beverages, in whatever quantities taken, 
then there is every reason for denouncing them, 



34 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

and endeavoring to suppress their sale and use, in 
view of the great harm they are acknowledged to 
do. 

It is plain, then, that in this whole matter of 
temperance agitation as a hygienic, a social, a 
moral, or a legal question, much, if not everything, 
depends upon the question as to whether these 
drinks, in their habitual or even occasional use, 
are good or evil things. If it should be thought 
they were good or innocent when taken in mod- 
eration, then it would be important to determine 
what was moderation, and this has never been 
defined. A very small quantity of other poi- 
sons, of arsenic for instance, may be taken for 
a long time, or occasionally certainly, without 
doing very much harm — without doing harm that 
would be perceptible to all ; yet however small the 
quantity, some harm would be done, certainly no 
good, and it would be folly, on account of its slight 
effects when little enough was taken, to encourage 
or tolerate the habitual or even occasional use of it. 

But coming to the inquiry as to the effects of 
alcoholics upon the human system, some statements 



PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 35 

seem necessary as to the parts and qualities of that 
system. The organs most concerned in the action 
of alcohol are the stomach, the liver, the heart, 
the kidneys, and the brain and nervous system — 
though all parts of the body are affected by it. 

'The stomach, as all know, is the organ into 
which is received our food and drink, and in which 
the food is chiefly digested and prepared to nour- 
ish the body. The food, thus digested, is largely 
absorbed, or soaked up, from this organ into the 
blood through the coats of the veins, and carried 
to the liver, where it undergoes farther changes, is 
converted largely into blood and mingled with it, 
and is then carried to the right side of the heart, 
which pumps it into the lungs, where it is acted 
upon by the oxygen in the air we breathe, chang- 
ing it from the dark blood of the veins to the bright 
red blood of the arteries. This blood is then car- 
ried on to the left side of the heart, and from it 
pumped out through the arteries to all parts of 
the body. It goes from larger to smaller arteries, 
until it comes into some very small vessels called 
capillaries. It passes through these minute ves- 



36 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

sels slowly, and its nourishing particles are taken 
up into the different parts, affording them nourish- 
ment, contributing to their growth in young per- 
sons, and to the maintenance of the strength and 
activity of all persons and all parts. 

The small veins then take up the altered blood 
which is not appropriated by the tissues, together 
with the materials which result from the wearing 
out of particles in the acts of life, and this blood is 
carried from all parts of the body, from smaller to 
larger veins, until it comes back to the right side 
of the heart and is again carried to the lungs, to be 
restored to arterial blood by the air; and so the 
process goes on perpetually during our whole life. 

The fluids taken into the stomach are absorbed 
into the veins like the foods, which are all dis- 
solved and brought to a liquid state, and these 
fluids are carried in the blood to the liver, and then 
to the heart and lungs. 

Some of the foods and fluids swallowed pass out 
of the stomach intc^ the intestines, are changed and 
digested farther there, and are absorbed from this 
situation partly by the veins and partly by a spe- 



PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAM SYSTEM. 37 

cial set of vessels called lacteals, and, like those 
substances absorbed from the stomach, are finally 
carried into the blood. 

In the stomach the food meets with a fluid called 
the gastric juice, secreted by the coats of the stom- 
ach, and which dissolves and digests or changes 
the food, and fits it for absorption,* and for the far- 
ther changes in the system. 

Shakespeare says, " the stomach is the storehouse 
and workshop of the whole body ; " and the office 
of this organ could not be more briefly and accu- 
rately expressed. 

The liver is also an important organ. It is a 
large, solid body, situated to the right of the stom- 
ach under the ribs, and it performs several offices. 
It changes the food carried to it, and converts a 
part of it into blood. It produces heat, by the 
chemical changes effected there, and prepares waste 
material in the blood for being carried out of the 
system ; and it secretes bile. This bile is carried 
by ducts from the liver into the intestines, and is a 
material that is useful in digesting food that passes 
from the stomach into the bowels ; and it promotes 



38 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

proper action of those organs. When the liver is 
changed in its structure or its action, the whole sys- 
tem is deranged. 

The heart is one of the vital organs which must 
be constantly in action, or life will speedily end. 
Its office is to circulate the blood, and if this fluid 
fails to be sent to any organ, even for a short time, 
that organ ceases its action ; and when a large num- 
ber of organs cease their action, death occurs. 
When the heart acts improperly, more or less de- 
rangement results. 

The lungs^ again, perform an office which is im- 
mediately essential to life, and are also called 
vital organs. In the passage of the blood 
through the tissues it loses its oxygen, and carbon 
compounds are formed, which are injurious to 
the tissues ; or, at any rate, this venous blood is 
not capable of sustaining life-actions in the organs 
and tissues. This venous blood constantly flowing 
into the lungs must be as constantly changed into 
arterial blood by the action of the oxygen of the 
air upon it. The union of oxygen in the lungs 
with carbon and hydrogen is a kind of combustion, 



PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 39 

and by it the heat of the body is kept up, while the 
blood at the same time is purified. If the lungs 
should cease to perform their office — if we stop 
breathing even for a few minutes — death will fol- 
low. Anything which interferes with the proper 
action of the lungs, or hinders the purification of 
the blood and the addition to it of the proper 
amount of oxygen, interferes with all the functions 
of the body, reduces the temperature, and in vari- 
ous ways does mischief to the system. 

The kidneys perform a very important office in 
carrying out of the body and the blood effete or 
worn-out materials that result from muscular and 
other actions, and from the changes of the foods 
taken. These foreign matters, if retained for a 
considerable time, ^re certain to poison the whole 
system, cause stupor, and generally convulsions, 
and always death. Anything, again, which inter- 
feres with the proper action of the kidneys deranges 
the whole body. 

But the brain and nervous system is, if possible, 
the most essential — is certainly the most central, 
the most characteristic, and the most important 



40 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

part of the human being. It not only presides 
over and is essential to every action of the body, 
but is the special organ of the mind. Its proper 
conditions and actions are essential to proper think- 
ing and proper feeling, to the existence of proper 
moral qualities, and to the sustaining of proper 
conduct and proper social relations. A bad brain 
makes a bad man. It hardly needs to be said 
that anything which acts specially and injuriously 
upon the brain and nervous system deranges every 
department of the character and of the conduct, 
physical and mental. 

The bloody though not an organ like the stomach 
or the brain, is a vital fluid, an essential medium 
of communication between all parts, the carrier of 
the food and the oxygen to all the tissues, and is 
the agent of nutrition, of growth, of maintenance, 
and of purification of the body — and this nutrition 
is the ultimate and essential life-action. When 
this ceases, death occurs, and when this is de- 
ranged, disease is present. 

The Bible says the blood is the life of the body, 
and certainly anything that destroys the blood de- 



PARTS AND QUALITIES OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 41 

stroys life ; and anything that deranges or corrupts 
the blood deranges the actions and corrupts the 
very source and agent of life. 

We shall endeavor to show the action of alcohol 
on all these parts, and upon the system at large — 
upon body, mind, and character. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE STOMACH. 

/^^UR bodies are dependent for their growth, 
^<-^ their support and activity upon substances 
taken into them. The air so necessary to our life is 
taken into the lungs ; and some other materials are 
taken with it in the form of gases and vapors, but 
these latter are not for support or growth, and many 
are injurious. By far the greater number of sub- 
stances, whether for necessary and useful purposes, 
or with injurious effects, are taken into the stomach. 
These ingesta, as they are called, may be divided 
into Foods, Simple Drinks, Medicines, and Poisons ; 
and besides these there are certain materials used 
as luxuries which are modifiers of action, and are 
regarded variously as foods, medicines, or as capa- 
ble of producing injurious effects. Condiments, 

spices, coffee, tea and chocolate belong to this class. 

42 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE STOMACH. 43 

There are also other substances taken into the 
stomach which are inert — incapable of solution 
and absorption — and which have no effect except 
such as is caused by their bulk or the shape of 
their particles. The hard fibres in fruits and veg- 
etables, the husks of seeds and grains, and some 
mineral substances are examples. Doctor Martin 
of Johns Hopkins University, in his work on the 
Human Body^ says : ^ 

Foods may be defined as substances which when taken 
into the alimentary canal are absorbed from it, and these 
serve either to supply material for the growth of the body, 
or for the replacement of matter which has been removed 
from it. 

Food^ in order to be such, must fulfil certain con- 
ditions. It must contain the elements which it is 
to replace in the body, and those necessary to build 
up the tissues. It must be capable of being ab- 
sorbed from the stomach or intestines, and carried 
to the tissues ; and, lastly, neither the substance it- 
self, nor any of the products arising from its changes, 
or from combinations with other substances, must 



44 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

be injurious to the structure or activity of any 
organ. 

If these injurious effects are produced " it is a 
poison and not a food." 

Water is the simple diluent Drink. This liquid 
constitutes about two thirds of the whole weight of 
the body. It is contained in every tissue as well as 
in every fluid of the system ; and its loss, which is 
constantly going on, must from time to time be sup- 
plied. Many drinks in use contain other ingredi- 
ents, but all contain water. The other materials 
may be foods, as in milk ,♦ may be modifiers of ac- 
tions, as in infusions of coffee and tea ; or they may 
be medicines or poisons. 

Medicines are substances which are taken for the 
purpose of modifying beneficially wrong actions or 
conditions of the system ; or, in other words, for the 
alleviation of suffering and the removal of disease. 

Poisons are substances which, either by them- 
selves, or by the materials produced by their 
changes and combinations, inflict injury upon the 
system or some of its parts, and which are usually 
capable, independently of their bulk or mere physi- 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE STOMACH. 45 

cal qualities, of producing death. The same article 
may be a medicine, or a poison, according to the 
manner and object of its use. Thus arsenic, though 
a poison that inflicts injury when taken by a person 
in health, and in any considerable quantity causes 
death, may yet be given in such small doses as to 
counteract wrong actions and aid in removing 
diseases. In like manner morphine, when a few 
grains are taken, will destroy life, and always in 
flicts injury in whatever quantity when taken by the 
well; yet in a proper dose given to the sick, it re- 
lieves pain, procures sleep, prevents suffering and 
may overcome disease. Its habitual use, though in 
quantities which may not only be endured but may 
produce for tlie time agreeable sensations, is ac- 
companied by consequences the most deplorable. 

The statement of these facts will enable the 
readers who wish to know the trutli, the better to 
understand the place alcoholic drinks occupy, after 
we have considered their particular eflEects on the 
different organs and functions of the human body. 

These drinks are taken into the stomach, and we 
are first to inquire as to their effects upon that or- 



46 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

gan. Although the most injurious action of alcohol, 
as it is commonly taken, is not upon the stomach, 
yet its effects on this workshop of the body are 
often of the most serious character ; but as with all 
other substances, poisonous or otherwise, its par- 
ticular action and results depend much upon the 
quantity taken, the degree of concentration or 
strength in which it is used, and upon the materials 
in the stomach at the time, and the particular con- 
dition of the organ ; and these effects are further 
modified by its habitual or only occasional use. 

When an ordinary dram of spirit and water, or of 
wine, is taken by one not accustomed to it, the first 
noticeable effect on the stomach is to produce a 
feeling of warmth in it. If the stomach be empty 
this effect is more decided than when taken at the 
time of a meal or soon after. When food is pres- 
ent the liquor mingles with it, is diluted and makes 
less impression on the coats of the stomach, and is 
more slowly absorbed. It causes in a short time re- 
laxation and enlargement of the blood-vessels, and 
more blood is contained in them. There is pres- 
ent a state of irritation. There is in some cases a 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE STOMACH. 47 

more free secretion from the glands, but it is more 
or less perverted. This irritation, however, may 
increase the appetite, and cause more food to be 
taken, but its digestion is likely to be impaired, and 
if much alcohol is taken the gastric juice is so 
changed by its direct action upon it that digestion 
is arrested. An unnatural condition of the nerves 
and vessels and of the whole tissue of the mem- 
brane is induced. If the alcohol is often repeated 
the vessels become permanently dilated, the sur- 
face redder than natural ; and according to the ob- 
servations of Dr. Beaumont upon the stomach of 
St. Martin, which was open to inspection by a wound 
in the side, a degree of congestion and a blush of in- 
flammation, and often small points of oozing blood 
appeared after each indulgence in a common drink. 
When the drinking is free, though it may not be 
carried to the extent of drunkenness, the stomach 
is apt to be more seriously and permanently 
changed. The coats become thickened, the organ 
is sometimes much contracted, the secretion of the 
gastric juice greatly perverted and diminished. 
Then very little food can be taken and digested, in- 



48 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

digestion, distress and vomiting come on, and great 
depression and death follow. I recall cases in my 
experience where these results have followed the 
free use of spirits in men not regarded as drunkards, 
and who continued in successful business until the 
disease of the stomach arrested their course. Some- 
times small and scattered ulcerations are produced 
and then bleeding, pain, and more frequent vomit- 
ing are likely to occur, and death is apt to soon fol- 
low. Even when these conditions exist, though pro- 
duced by the alcohol, the taking of a dose of the 
same article will, by its narcotic effect upon the 
brain and nerves, give for a time relief to the dis- 
tressed feelings, and make the victim of the habit 
think that he cannot give up his drink, and that it 
is even doing him good. 

When great excesses are indulged in, causing 
drunkenness, more immediate and violent effects 
upon the stomach are often produced. The organ 
becomes congested and inflamed so that days may 
be required for recovery from a drunken fit. When 
much alcohol is taken into the stomach as strong as 
clear spirits, or spirits but moderately diluted, the 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE STOMACH. 49 

gastric juice which digests the food is coagulated 
or thickened and its power of digestion is destroyed. 
Those who take sufficient alcohol with a late dinner 
or supper to produce drunkenness, often vomit the 
food after some hours entirely undigested. 

But these effects upon the stomach do not always 
follow from the use of alcohol ; and in consequence 
of this many are encouraged to continue its use, and 
even advocate it as an innocent if not a useful thing. 
Some persons who commence taking it in moder- 
ate quantities largely diluted, as in wane and beer 
or in whiskey or brandy with much water, and es- 
pecially if they take it at meal-time, do not have 
their stomachs materially injured though they 
carry the indulgence so far as to seriously and even 
fatally injure them in other organs and in other 
ways. No poisonous article operates in the same 
manner upon every person ; and some will endure an 
amount of arsenic, or opium, or other poisons, when 
slowly introduced, without very marked effects, 
which would soon prove much more injurious or 
even fatal to others, especially if taken without the 
gradual training. This is the case with alcohol. 



50 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

Some stomachs will endure a considerable quantity 
for a long time without very serious effects upon 
them while others will suffer many or all of the bad 
results before described. When the injurious effects 
of alcohol upon the stomach are urged as a reason 
for not taking it, some old drunkard or free drinker 
is often referred to as having a good stomach not- 
withstanding his habits. Such cases though not un- 
frequent are still exceptional. The many whose 
stomachs are injured by the drink, and who have 
been forced to abandon it, or who are suffering or 
have died from it, are lost sight of, and the few who 
have endured it and survived, are regarded as ex- 
amples of all. 

As well might one say that a battle or the storm- 
ing of a battery was not dangerous or destructive, 
since many old soldiers have gone through the or- 
deal with but slight injuries. 

The dangers of alcohol to the stomach are great, 
especially when taken in form of ardent spirits and 
between meals, and are often disastrous, though 
some escape this form of injury. The greater in- 
jury falls upon other organs and functions. 



CHAPTER V. 

ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 

IN the preceding chapter the qualities of foods, 
medicines, and poisons and the differences 
between them were pointed out. This was done 
to determine the place of alcoholics. The word 
" intoxicants," which means poisons, so generally 
and properly applied to these articles, indicates 
where they belong. As with other poisons, a me- 
dicinal effect from alcohol is possible ; but the 
poisonous action is the chief, and, in the absence 
of disease, the essential or only one. 

All scientific men in writing upon poisons class 
alcohol among them, and no one denies to this 
article poisonous properties. Like other poisons 
independent of its bulk, it not only deranges life- 
actions but is capable of causing speedy death. 
The account given of its action upon the stomach 

SI 



52 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

shows its capability of inflicting severe injury upon 
that organ, but its injurious effects are not confined 
to the stomach even while remaining within it. 
The impressions made there effect other parts of 
the system. The nerves, which are distributed 
throughout every part of the body, carry impres- 
sions which are made upon one part to others, and 
thus change the actions and conditions of distant 
parts, and often of the whole system. When a 
swallow or two of brandy or whiskey is taken, an 
impression is made upon the nerves of the stom- 
ach which is at once conveyed to other parts, es- 
pecially to the brain and heart, causing, for a time, 
an excitement of these parts. This is not the 
same in all persons ; but usually an excited sen- 
sation is felt in the head, and the heart beats more 
rapidly. In faintness from whatever cause, the 
heart beats very feebly, and when one entirely 
" faints away " the beating ceases entirely, and the 
blood is not circulated in the brain. In this con- 
dition the impression of alcohol in the stomach 
may arouse those other organs to action, just as a 
smell of hartshorn, or the dashing of water upon 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 53 

the face, or the application of a hot iron, or a 
tingling blow will do, and thus relieve the f aintness. 

It is this effect of alcohol which makes people 
think it a stimulant — an exciter or increaser of 
strength and action ; and in the sense that a 
strong odor, a hot iron, or a smart slap is a stim- 
ulant, the alcohol is a stimulant. But this effect 
of a drink of spirit lasts but a short time, usually 
but a few minutes. If the impression is very 
strong, if a large quantity is taken, instead of any 
stimulation, depression immediately follows, and as 
in the case of an extensive burn, or a severe blow 
over the stomach, death may speedily be produced. 
Men, and more specially children, have died in a 
fqw minutes from a large dose of whiskey. 

But the principal, the more characteristic, and 
the much more permanent effects of alcohol are 
from its absorption from the stomach into the 
blood, its operation upon that fluid, and upon the 
organs and tissues to which it is carried. 

Though alcohol while in the stomach acts upon 
the gastric juice, impairing its digestive power, and 
when the alcohol is much concentrated destroying 



54 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

its digestive action, yet under no circumstances 
does this digestive fluid change the alcohol. This 
is not capable of being digested, but is taken up 
by the vessels of the stomach simply diluted, 
mingling with the fluids it meets. 

It is first carried to the liver and then to the 
brain and the rest of the system, and its principal 
action upon the liver I shall now attempt to de- 
scribe. 

The liver and brain have more attraction for 
alcohol than any other parts of the body. When 
an animal or a person is killed by a large dose of 
this poison being absorbed, more of it is found in 
these organs than in any others. 

The first effect of the alcohol on the liver is to 
irritate it, just as it irritates the mouth and the 
stomach, or, when applied strong enough, the skin. 
It causes distension of the bloodvessels, and the 
accumulation of a larger amount of blood in them 
than there should be. This results in swelling of 
the organ, partly from the larger quantity of blood 
in the vessels, and partly from effusion into it and 
an increase of the tissue. This change in the con- 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 55 

dition of the liver causes a change in its action ; 
and even without much change in its size or struc- 
ture, decided changes occur from the alcohol in its 
actions, and its important work of preparing the 
food carried to it and making it ready for the uses 
of the body, its office of making blood, of changing 
waste matter so that it can be carried out of the 
system by other organs, and its work of secreting 
bile are all imperfectly done. 

This defective work leads to general derange- 
ment of the whole system. There is what is called 
biliousness — disturbance of the stomach, a coated 
tongue, foul breath, deranged bowels, headache, 
dizziness, dimness of sight, distressing dreams, a 
feeling of fullness in the side and stomach, and 
general uncomfortable sensations. Notwithstand- 
ing that these unpleasant effects are so frequently 
produced by what are regarded as moderate quan- 
tities of wine, beer, or spirits, yet each drink, by 
its narcotic or soothing effect upon the brain and 
nerves, may make the person feel better for the 
time, just as the distress produced by opium eat- 
ing is temporarily relieved by repeating the dose. 



56 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

But much more serious effects are in some cases 
produced by alcoholics, and beer is more apt to act 
in the way about to be mentioned than whiskey. 
An accumulation of fat is often produced in the 
liver, causing its greater and more permanent en- 
largement, and impairing more permanently its 
action. When this is the case stopping the use of 
the drink does not produce the same rapid improve- 
ment as in the cases before mentioned. But where 
the fat is deposited between the proper liver cells 
or structures, without taking the place of them, 
abstaining from drinking may in time be followed 
by much improvement. 

There is another fatty change much worse than 
this, where particles of fat take the place of the 
structure. This is called fatty degeneration, and 
when it occurs other organs are likely to be af- 
fected in a similar way ; and this disease before a 
great while ends in death. 

When any portion of the liver tissue is changed 
into fat, that part cannot do its work, and as the 
change goes on action will cease and death must 
follow. 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 57 

But Other changes take place in the liver, and 
the one now to be mentioned is oftener produced 
by ardent spirits than by beer or wine. 

I am quite aware that voung people, or older 
ones, who have not learned about the particular 
structures of the body will not be able fully to under- 
stand minute descriptions of these changes should 
they be given, and such persons will therefore not 
be interested in these details. But some useful 
ideas on the subject may be received by reading 
these more general statements ; and by making in- 
quiries of parents or others w^ho are able to make 
explanations, satisfactory knowledge may be ob- 
tained by even very young persons who are desirous 
of learning. 

I will here only say that there is a disease of the 
liver called Cirrhosis from its yellow color, and 
the hob-nail liver from there being upon its surface 
rounded projections, looking like the large nails 
on the soles of an English laborer's shoes ; and 
this disease is also called gin-liver from its always 
being produced by drinking strong liquor. The 
liver though swollen at first, becomes shrivelled 



58 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

and much smaller later, and all through it are small 
masses causing the inside to look like a cake of 
beeswax in which, when it was melted, yellow 
peas had been mixed. 

In this condition the blood cannot properly cir- 
culate through it, it cannot perform its proper func- 
tions, dropsy follows; and when the disease is 
established, death always occurs in a few months, 
or at the longest in a very few years. 

As with certain alcoholic diseases of the stomach, 
particularly Cirrhosis and contraction of its walls, 
even the abandonment of the alcohol comes too 
late. 

This Cirrhosis, as well as other structural alco- 
holic diseases, is more likely to occur from steady 
drinking, though it be not carried to the extent of 
positive drunkenness, than from occasional de- 
bauches, however excessive, and however morally 
and' socially degrading and disastrous. These 
structural changes of the liver from the effects of 
alcohol, though sufficiently common to be very 
familiar to physicians, are not nearly so frequent 
as the derangements of action of this important 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 59 

organ from the same cause, without distinguishable 
changes of its structure. 

Dr. Murchison, late of London, a physician of the 
very highest authority on this subject, in his stan- 
dard work on Diseases of the Liver, says these 
affections are exceedingly common in his country ; 
and Sir Henry Thompson, one of the very first 
surgeons of the present time, says, "Few are aware 
of the great mischief which what is regarded as 
the moderate use of fermented liquors [ beer and 
wine] is doing in England." 

Dr. Murchison, writing on the management of 
these cases, says: "A man first gives up malt 
liquors, and in succession, port wine, Madeira, 
champagne, etc. ; then tries brandy or whiskey 
largely diluted with water. At last unless misled 
by the fashionable [as it was then in England] 
but to my mind erroneous doctrine of the present 
day, that alcohol in one form or another is neces- 
sary for digestion, or to enable a man to get through 
his mental or bodily work, he finds that he enjoys 
best health when he abstains altogether from wine 
and spirits in any form or quantity, and drinks 



6o TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

plain water." The particular diseases which re- 
sult from these derangements of the liver, produced 
or aggravated by alcoholics, are very numerous. 
Dr. Murchison makes nine classes with several 
varieties in each class. Among them he mentions 
as very frequent in England, ^'gout, urinary calculi, 
biliary calculi, degeneration of the kidneys, struc- 
tural diseases of the liver, and in fact lowering 
and degeneration of tissue, throughout the body." 

In an approach to old age, in those of even 
moderate alcoholic habits, there is a likelihood of 
fatty and calcareous or chalky matter taking the 
place of natural structures throughout the body. 

The increase of fat so frequent in beer and wine 
drinkers, mostly produced by the action of these 
articles upon the liver, makes some people think 
that these drinks are healthy, but such fat is an 
evidence of deranged nutrition and of lowered 
life power. There is a bloated condition which in- 
terferes with the ability to labor, and prevents the 
vigorous action of all the life forces. In the latter 
stages of "alcoholism "emaciation may take place, 
especially in spirit drinkers. 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE LIVER. 6 1 

Bacchus, the god of drunkenness, was repre- 
sented by the ancients as corpulent, never as ema- 
ciated ; but with the ancients alcoholic drinks were 
in the form of wine, not made stronger by the ad- 
dition of more alcohol, as in nearly all the wines 
in our markets. Still some old drunkards were 
doubtless emaciated in the times of Grecian and 
Roman art ; but it was not the object of that art, 
as it is not the object of much of our literature, to 
represent the repelling evils of the wine cup, but 
rather to paint in attractive colors its short and 
spurious pleasures. History has here as elsewhere 
repeated itself. 

Ancient art represented the god of wine in the 
bloom of youth and in rosy plumpness, concealing 
the advanced bloating, and the occasional haggard 
emaciation. Modern literature sings the praises 
of the sparkling wine, but fails to tell of the woes 
which follow. The inspiration of truth, however, 
says. At last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like 
an adder. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LUNGS. 

ALCOHOL, though first carried from the 
stomach to the liver, making there an early 
and lasting impression, does not stop there, but is 
carried on through the right side of the heart to 
the lungs; and its action upon these organs will 
now be considered. 

When the alcohol reaches the lungs it makes an 
impression upon them ; but from causes now to be 
mentioned its immediate local effect upon them 
is not very striking. It tends, however, to produce 
an impression on their delicate structures similar 
to its first local effect upon the stomach and liver, 
though in a less marked degree. The small blood- 
vessels are doubtless dilated and some retardation 
of the circulation through them results. This, 
however, is not great when only a moderate quan- 

^2 



'action of alcohol upon the lungs. 63 

tity is taken, and observations on this point have 
not been exact and conclusive. 

The lungs are exceedingly porous, filled with 
open tubes and minute cells, or cavities, which are 
surprisingly numerous ; and as the lungs are large 
bodies filling nearly the whole cavity of the chest, 
the surface of these tubes and cells is wonderfully 
large. All the blood in the body comes to the 
lungs and passes through them, and the alcohol 
which is gradually absorbed and brought there is 
mixed with so large a quantity of blood, and is dis- 
tributed over so large an area, and so soon passes 
on to the left side of the heart to be sent to all 
parts of the body, that but a small quantity can 
at any one time be present in any particular part ; 
hence the slighter primary local effect upon the 
tissue of those organs than upon many others. Its 
effects, however, upon the actions which take place 
here are more important. 

The function of the lungs is to change the blood 
from an impure, dark, venous fluid, unfit for the 
uses of the system and even poisonous to it, to a 
pure, vivifying one which is essential to all the 



64 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

activities of the body. This change is effected by 
the oxygen of the air taken in by the act of breath- 
ing, a portion of which unites with certain of the 
impure matters in the blood, changing their char- 
acters, and causing them to pass out of the body 
by the expelled breath, while another portion of 
the oxygen unites with the blood-corpuscles and 
is carried by them to the rest of the body, impart- 
ing life and activity to all the parts and tissues. 

The principal material in the blood that needs 
to be removed is carbon. The oxygen unites with 
this material and produces carbonic acid gas, or, 
as chemists now call it, dioxide of carbon. If 
this, or its base — the carbon — be retained in the 
blood, very injurious effects result ; and this gas 
passes off with the air which is breathed out. The 
alcohol which is in the blood is not known to be 
oxidized or changed in the lungs. Some passes 
off in vapor with the breath, but most of it passes 
on with the blood to the left side of the heart to 
be sent to the rest of the system. 

The more complete the oxidation and purifica- 
tion of the blood, the more pure oxygen is united 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LUNGS. 65 

with the blood-corpuscles, the more real vigor is 
imparted to the system. When one has been long 
in a close room where the air is exhausted of a 
considerable portion of its oxygen and is contam- 
inated with carbonic acid, the blood is not prop- 
erly purified or vivified by the limited oxygen, and 
one feels stupid, and often faint and dizzy. Going 
into the pure, open air will produce a most reviv- 
ing effect, as everybody knows. When persons 
remain a large part of the time in a confined and 
impure atmosphere, or when from any cause their 
blood is not properly purified by the free action of 
the oxygen upon it, weakness and derangements 
follow, severe diseases of various kinds are likely 
to occur, and prominent among them is consump- 
tion. 

Now it is well known that the presence of al- 
cohol in the blood diminishes the action of oxygen 
on the carbon and other impurities, and prevents 
the complete purification of the blood and the 
perfect change of venous into arterial blood. This 
is proved beyond all doubt by the diminished 
quantity of carbonic acid given off in the breath 



66 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

of one who has been drinking alcoholics, by the 
blueness of the surface often noticed, caused by 
the darker and more venous blood in the vessels ; 
and it is also proved by the greater liability of 
drinking persons to those diseases which are pro- 
duced or made worse by the impurity of the blood. 
The warmth of the body, called the animal heat, 
is largely caused by the union of oxygen with car- 
bon and hydrogen in the lungs. A slow kind of 
combustion or burning takes place there, which, 
like the more intense burning of wood or coal, 
causes heat. It is well known by all physiologists 
that when alcohol is taken less heat is produced, 
and that this diminution is in proportion to the 
quantity used. From the narcotic or benumbing 
effect of the alcohol the person may not feel colder, 
and the surface of the body by expansion of the 
vessels of the skin may have more blood in it, and 
the skin is sometimes temporarily warmer; but 
the blood throughout the system and in the deeper 
parts is colder as is shown by the thermometer in 
the mouth; and it is well known that persons 
under the influence of liquor perish much sooner 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LUNGS. 67 

when exposed to the cold. No physiologist or 
intelligent doctor will deny these statements; and 
their truth is confirmed by the experience of all 
arctic explorers — by Dr. Kane among others. All 
this goes to prove that alcohol diminishes combus- 
tion, heat-production, and purification in the lungs, 
and contributes to all the results dependent upon 
such diminution. 

From the general effect of alcohol in lowering 
and perverting vitality and nutrition, the lungs 
suffer with other tissues of the body, and several 
diseases of these organs are more likely to occur 
in those using this article ; and these diseases, 
when occurring from any cause, are much more 
likely to be severe. When inflammation of the 
lungs attacks a free drinker, a fatal result is vastly 
more likely to occur than when it attacks one 
who abstains. All medical men are agreed in 
this. 

Some years ago an opinion originated in this 
country (it was not received from any authority 
abroad") and became quite prevalent even among 
physicians, that the use of alcoholics, particularly 



68 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

of whiskey, in free quantities, tended to prevent 
that dreaded disease of the lungs, consumption. 

It is difficult to say precisely how this opinion 
obtained such prevalence, as investigation shows 
that no substantial ground exists for it. It was 
probably, however, the result of an extreme reac- 
tion from the bleeding and other depressing treat- 
ment in this disease, and from the mistaken 
opinion that alcohol was essentially a tonic and 
supporting agent. It is most rational to conclude 
that anything which lowers the vitality and integ- 
rity of tissues, as certainly the free use of alcohol 
is known to do, will tend to the production of a 
disease which is acknowledged to depend upon 
depressing influences, and diminished life force. 
This conclusion of reason is sustained by carefully 
observed facts. 

There are no statistics — no recorded observa- 
tions and comparisons of numbers of cases — which 
afford the slightest indication that the use o:^alcohol 
in any form or quantity prevents consumption. 
This is not the place for an elaborate discussion 
of this subject, but some things may be mentioned, 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LUNGS. 69 

which even the younger readers of these chapters 
can understand. 

British soldiers, when in their own islands in 
time of peace and living in barracks, are well 
known to be free drinkers. In proof of this the 
second most frequent severe disease among them 
is delirium tremens, which occurs only in free 
drinkers. At the same time the most frequent 
serious and fatal disease among them is consump- 
tion. It is stated upon the authority of Dr. Lom- 
bard, in his Treatise 07i Medical Climatology^ that 
forty-six out of every hundred of the deaths in the 
English army in garrison at home are from con- 
sumption. If whiskey prevented the disease in 
any degree it is readily seen that this would not 
be the case. It never happened among any large 
number of abstaining temperance people, that 
forty-six per cent., or almost one half, had con- 
sumption, or that this proportion of deaths was 
from that disease. The statistics of this army 
show that alcoholic drinking is a cause rather than 
a prevention of consumption. 

As the opinion is still entertained by some 



70 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

(though fortunately not by as many as a few years 
ago) that whiskey antagonizes and prevents con- 
sumption, and as it is still taken for that purpose, 
the opinions of some of the highest medical author- 
ities, men who have given special attention to the 
disease, may be referred too. 

No man is higher authority on this subject than 
Doctor Lebert, a voluminous writer and original 
investigator, and who has had an extensive prac- 
tice in this disease in Germany, France, and Switz- 
erland. He emphatically states and reiterates, that 
the free use of alcohol is a cause of consumption, 
and nowhere in his work on the subject does he 
intimate that in any quantity it antagonizes or pre- 
vents the disease. 

In England no names are of higher authority 
on this subject than those of Doctors Williams, 
Chambers, and Peacock. None of them intimate 
that alcohol prevents consumption, but all state 
that its free use is among the prominent causes of 
the disease, particularly of the variety called fibroid 
consumption. In London there is a large Insti- 
tution called the "Brompton Hospital for Con- 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE LUNGS. 7 1 

sumptives," where large numbers of these cases 
are treated, and the disease and all its relations, 
its causes, treatment, and the changes which occur 
from it in the lungs, are carefully studied. One 
of the physicians there. Dr. R. E. Thompson, in a 
work on the examination of such cases, declares 
that " alcoholic intemperance has a very distinct 
effect upon the condition not only of the body gen- 
erally, but also especially upon the lungs." He 
speaks of a particular form of the disease in free 
beer-drinkers, and another, the fibroid form, in 
spirit-drinkers, and speaks of these forms of the 
affection as produced by these indulgences. In- 
deed, the Fibroid form of consumption is by all 
medical writers allowed to be most frequently pro- 
duced by the use of alcohol. Other authorities of 
an equally high character might be referred to. 
My own opinion, the result of long experience in 
private and hospital practice, is that alcohol has 
no claim to be regarded as antagonizing consump- 
tion, or as preventive of the disease — none what- 
ever — but that it is the chief cause of what is 
called Fibroid Phthisis. I have seen many made 



72 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

drunkards, some in whom I had the greatest friend- 
ly and fraternal interest; but I have never seen a 
case where I had evidence that whiskey prevented 
or cured the disease. 

An irritated and inflamed condition of the throat, 
often extending to the tubes of the lungs, produc- 
ing a hoarseness and a husky cough, especially in 
the morning, is a common occurrence in free drink- 
ers. 

I have dwelt so long upon this subject because 
of its great importance — because so many have 
been led into injurious and fatal practices irom 
what I am confident are false views. May not 
this be another instance illustrative of the wisdom 
and truth of the Scriptural declaration, that Wme 
is a mocker^ strong drink is ragifig, and whosoever 
is deceived thereby is not wise ? 



CHAPTER VII. 

ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 

THE subject of the action of alcohol upon the 
heart is of great importance. There is an 
old and still-prevailing opinion, even among mem- 
bers of the medical profession, that the different 
alcoholic liquors stimulate that organ, whatever 
else they may do ; that is, that they increase its 
power and cause it to circulate the blood with 
more activity and force ; and it is for this sup- 
posed effect that they are most frequently pre- 
scribed as medicines, and taken as fancied aids in 
the performance of labor. The expression that 
" Wine cheers the heart," is regarded as meaning 
that it strengthens and sustains its physical action, 
and that it or some other alcoholic liquor is use- 
ful, if not positively needed, in low conditions of 
the system with feeble heart force, and that it 

23- 



74 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

acts as a strengthener or tonic. That under 
peculiar circumstances of shock or great suffering 
a stimulating effect is temporarily realized from 
alcohol, I am not prepared to deny; but that this 
is its most essential action, or that it acts thus at 
all in ordinary conditions, is opposed to the pres- 
ent state of physiological knowledge. The truth 
in this matter it will be one of the objects of this 
chapter to set forth. 

In preceding chapters we have traced the alco- 
hol which has entered the stomach into the blood, 
through the liver, and into the lungs. When it 
reaches these last organs, a small part of it imme- 
diately passes off in the breath, giving an odor 
which is readily perceived. But very much the 
greater portion is hurried on with the blood to the 
left side of the heart, and from this through the 
arteries to every part of the body, and in the round 
of the circulation comes back to the heart. While 
in that organ in its first and subsequent passages 
it makes an impression upon it, and the character 
of that impression is what at present interests us. 

The decision of the question as to whether it 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 75 

directly increases or depresses the heart's action 
by its presence there, does not positively deter- 
mine the more important question as to its benefi- 
cial or injurious effects, either in health or disease ; 
but such decision establishes principles which have 
a most important bearing upon the practical ques- 
tion of its utility or harmfulness in various condi- 
tions. 

It is held by physiologists that the direct action 
of an agent upon the muscular tissue and nerves 
of the heart, and upon its power and motions, is 
essentially the same in the lower animals and in 
man, and that whatever effect is demonstrated in 
the one is regarded as proof of the same in the 
other. It is this similarity in animals and man that 
makes experiments upon animals of such great im- 
portance -to the interests of humanity. 

Within the last few years experiments of the 
most exact and conclusive character have been 
made by skilled investigators, to determine the 
action of alcohol on the hearts of animals. To 
give the details of such experiments, even if fully 
intelligible to young readers, would occupy more 



76 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

space than is at our command. I must be content 
with stating the conclusions arrived at by acknowl- 
edged experts of the highest authority in these 
modes of investigation. 

Among the most careful and skilful experiments 
on this subject are those of Drs. Sidney Ringer 
and Harrington Gainsbury, of London, reported in 
The Practitioner (a leading medical journal) for 
May, 1883, and restated by myself, with comments, 
in the Journal of the American Medical Associa- 
tion, Vol. I, p. 272. 

These experiments made upon the hearts of 
frogs were instituted for the purpose of determin- 
ing the comparative effects of the different alco- 
hols in their direct action upon that organ. It 
was found that all the alcohols (including common 
alcohol, the active principle in all our liquors) 
diminished the force of the heart's action, and 
arrested it in a shorter or longer time, in exact 
proportion to the strength of the respective arti- 
cles and the quantity applied. A long series of 
experiments furnished the same results and dem- 
onstrated their correctness. Common alcohol is 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 77 

weaker and lighter than some of the other rarer 
alcohols, but heavier and stronger than others; 
but the effect in character was the same in all, 
differing only in degree. These eminent experi- 
menters, in closing their report on these articles, 
declared : " That by their direct action upon the 
cardiac tissue, these drugs are cltzxly paralyzant 
(and not stimulating), and that this appears to be 
the case from the outset, no stage of increased force 
or contraction precedingj^ 

Professor Martin, of Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, who has written an excellent work on 
Physiology, and who stands among the very high- 
est in this country as an experimental physiologist, 
has made experiments on the heart of the dog, 
with the view of determining the precise effect of 
common alcohol, when in the blood in certain pro- 
portions, upon that organ. A report of his exper- 
iments was published in the Maryland Medical 
Journal for September, 1883. Professor Martin 
states the results of his exact and conclusive obser- 
vations as follows : ^' Blood containing one eighth 
per cent, of alcohol [that is, in the proportion of 



78 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

one eighth of an ounce, or one teaspoonful, to one 
hundred ounces, or six and a quarter pints] has 
no immediate perceptible action on the isolated 
heart. Blood containing one fourth per cent, by- 
volume [that is, two teaspoonfuls to six pints and 
a quarter] almost invariably remarkably diminishes 
within a minute the work done by the heart ; blood 
containing one half per cent., that is five parts in 
a thousand [or four teaspoonfuls to six pints and 
a quarter], always diminished it ^ and may even bring 
the amount pumped out of the left ventricle to so 
small a quantity that it is not sufficient to supply 
the coronary arteries." 

Professor Martin estimates that an ordinary, 
and what would be regarded as a moderate, drink 
of brandy or whiskey, containing half an ounce of 
pure alcohol, or an ounce of the whiskey or brandy, 
would supply to the blood of an ordinary sized man 
the proportion of two and a half parts per thou- 
sand, the quantity he always found diminishing so 
positively the force of the heart's action, as tested 
upon the heart of the dog by instruments of pre- 
cision. The results of these experiments have not 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 79 

been contradicted by any other experiments of a 
similar character, and they conclusively prove that 
the direct action of alcohol on the heart \s paralyz- 
ing^ and not stimulating. 

It is true that alcohol often, indeed generally, 
increases \h^ freqiuncy oi the heart's action but not 
its force, when in a previously healthy state ; except 
perhaps in cases where it excites feverishness, 
which is a diseased condition. Great frequency 
of the pulse is an evidence of weakness rather 
than of strength. 

These conclusions of scientific experiment are 
not contradicted by correct observations upon 
persons. In faintness or depression from the 
shock of an injury or great suffering, a dose of 
alcohol, like a dose of opium, or the inhalation of 
chloroform or ether, by relieving the shock or the 
suffering will often temporarily increase the action 
of the heart, by its ' soothing action through the 
brain and nerves ; but this action is indirect and 
not permanent, and when no morbid condition is 
present to be relieved by its anodyne action, the 
alcohol, like opium and chloroform, produces de- 



8o TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

pression and diminishes action. Either of these 
articles may reUeve a sense of weakness without 
producing strength. 

The temporary effect of alcohol in relieving 
shock, and the relief it often affords to the feeling 
of fatigue, together with the slight and brief ex- 
citement it sometimes produces when first taken 
into the stomach, have given and keep up the 
notion of its essential stimulating effect upon the 
heart, which is so positively disproved by direct 
experiments and accurate observations. There is 
an instrument called a sphygmograph which, when 
applied over an artery, as to the pulse at the wrist, 
accurately measures and records the force with 
which the heart sends the blood through the ves- 
sel. It is proved by this, as well as by the exper- 
iments on animals, that a healthy heart has its 
force diminished, rather than increased, by alcohol 
taken into the blood and carried to it. It is well 
known that extreme doses arrest the action of the 
heart, and the person dies with this organ para- 
lyzed and distended. 

But in corroboration of these more conclusive 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 8 1 

experiments we have the opinions of those who 
have most carefully investigated the action of al- 
coholics upon the human body, and especially 
upon the heart, by the common methods of scien- 
tific observation. No man has given this subject 
more careful attention than the late Dr. Anstie of 
London. He concludes his statement respecting 
it by the following declaration : " A general review 
of the phenomena of alcohol-narcosis enables me 
to coma to the distinct conclusion, the importance 
of which appears to be very great, namely, that 
(as in the case of chloroform and ether) the 
symptoms which are so commonly described as 
evidences of excitement depending on a stimula- 
tion of the nervous system [and through it he 
might have added, of the heart] preliminary to 
the occurrence of narcosis, are in reality an essen- 
tial part of the narcotic, that is, the /faraly fie phe- 
nomena,,^' 

Dr. Samuel Wilks, of London, one of the high- 
est living authorities in the medical profession in 
England, says : " Alcohol, for all intents and pur- 
poses, may be regarded as a sedative or narcotic 



82 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

rather than a stimulant." These declarations ap- 
ply to the heart as well as to other parts of the 
body. 

No man in this country has studied the action 
of alcohol on the body longer or more carefully 
than Dr. N. S. Davis of Chicago. He has come 
to conclusions entirely in accordance with those 
already quoted. The effects of alcohol taken in 
the common manner are, he says, " those of an 
anaesthetic and organic sedative^ Other authority 
to the same effect might be quoted, but the fore- 
going must suffice. 

Facts in the personal experience of individuals, 
and in observations of large bodies of men, are 
quite as conclusive in proving that alcohol pro- 
duces weakness of the body, including the heart, 
rather than strength. It is now well known and 
acknowledged by scientific men, that less muscular 
labor can be performed under the influence of 
alcohol, in whatever quantity, than without it. In 
the performance of great feats of strength and en- 
durance, as in the case of Weston, the famous 
pedestrian, alcohol has been avoided ; and in the 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 83 

harvest field and the workshop, and with contest- 
ants in ancient Roman games, the advantage has 
ever been with abstainers. The most conclusive 
tests have been in armies in severe marches, where 
accurate observations on a large scale have been 
made by intelligent medical and commanding offi- 
cers. In all such tests, whether in hot or cold 
climates and seasons — in Africa, India, Russia, 
and Canada — in our own country, and everywhere, 
it has been shown that those soldiers who ab- 
stained from alcohol could accomplish and endure 
more than those who indulged in it, however mod- 
erately or freely. In emergencies, those officers 
who allow its use at all, find that it must be given 
when the men have accomplished their day's work, 
and are resting after their labor. It may then 
blunt the sense of fatigue, and promote sleep, but, 
unfortunately, it lessens the power of work for the 
next day, and if its use becomes habitual, other 
mischief, as we shall see, will be done. The effects 
of the habitual or long-continued use of alcoholics 
upon the heart are similar to those upon the body 
at large. Whether taken in the form of beer, 



84 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

wine, or spirits, the general effect is, lowering of 
vitality^ degeneration of structure^ and diminution of 
power. That the heart is rendered more liable to 
undergo morbid structural changes, all patholo- 
gists know. As with the liver, it is more liable to 
become loaded with and obstructed by fat, and to 
undergo fatty degeneration. Its vessels, its yalves, 
and its general tissues are more likely to be im- 
paired, and its force abates at a much earlier 
period ; and these effects are likely to be in pro- 
portion to the amount taken. In wine drinkers 
the condition called the " gouty heart " is a not 
unfrequent occurrence. The heart is then liable 
to attacks of severe pain, of irregular actions, and 
of sudden failure. It is often the seat of " mis- 
placed '^ gouty inflammation ; and gout, in whatever 
form, is always the result of indulgence in alcohol, 
either by the individual or his ancestors. The 
gout is unknown among peoples, such as the Mo- 
homedans, who hftve never used alcoholics. 

Notwithstanding the essential weakening effect 
of alcohol upon the heart, in those who have es- 
tablished the alcohol habit, as with those who 



ACTION OF ALCOHOLICS UPON THE HEART. 85 

have established the opium or the tobacco habit, 
the privation of the accustomed indulgence is 
often followed by a feeling of depression, and 
sometimes of real weakness, which will be relieved 
. by a repetition of the dose. No one supposes that 
tobacco is a strengthening article, and yet it in- 
creases the strength of an habitual user who has 
for a short time been deprived of it. It is so with 
alcohol when an habitual, but not an excessive, 
quantity is taken. This effect contributes to the 
false belief that it is a stimulating or strengthening 
agent. 

I have occupied so much space on this subject 
because of its great importance, and because of 
the prevailing errors respecting it; and have 
treated it by reference to scientific experiments 
and medical authorities (which may seem better 
adapted to an advanced class of medical students 
than to young and non-professional readers) 
because there seemed no other way of conveying 
truths in a convincing manner, that are essentially 
scientific. Long established and prevailing error 
is not to be overcome by the unreasoning declara- 



86 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

tions of a single individual, without appealing to 
other authority, and to well observed and recorded 
facts. Technical language has been avoided as 
much as it seems possible to do in the discussion 
of a physiological subject. 



i 



1 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE KIDNEYS. 

THE kidneys are two darkish red organs, 
about four inches in length, two in breadth, 
and one inch in thickness, with a convex outer and 
a concave inner surface, situated one on each side 
of the abdomen, the right just below the liver, and 
the left below the stomach and spleen, and both 
near the backbone. Their office is to carry out of 
the body, by straining them from the blood, various 
substances dissolved in that fluid, and held in solu- 
tion by the water passing out with them. Some of 
these substances are formed in the body from worn- 
out materials of tissues, and some are matters taken 
into the system from without, and which are not 
appropriated to its uses. 

The kidneys are supplied with large blood vessels 
which carry to and from them large quantities of 
^7 



88 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. . 

blood ; and the water, with the other ingredients 
in it, which is separated from the blood is conveyed 
from each of these organs by a tube to the bladder, 
from which from time to time it is expelled as waste 
and useless or injurious matter. 

This is an office so important that if it is sus- 
pended for any considerable time, blood and tissue 
poisoning, and especially brain poisoning, is pro- 
duced, and death soon follows. If this office is 
imperfectly performed, more or less derangement 
results according to the degree of such imperfection. 
Whatever, then, injures the kidneys and impairs 
their action inflects a serious injury upon the sys- 
tem. We are now to consider the action of alcohol 
on these organs. 

^ Any substance taken into the body and passing 
into the blood, and not changed in its form or appro- 
priated to the uses of the system, is carried out of 
it, and to a large extent by the kidneys. Poisons 
and medicines are thus removed from the blood as 
it is constantly passing through these organs. As 
alcohol is not digested in the stomach but passes 
unchanged into the blood, and is not converted, or, 



EFFECTS Of alcohol ON THE KIDNEYS. 89 

if at all, only in small quantities, into any other sub- 
stances to be appropriated to any uses in the 
system, it is certainly mostly carried out of the 
body as it entered it, partly by the lungs and skin, 
giving its odor to the breath and the perspiration, 
but largely also by the kidneys. It thus comes in 
contact with the very delicate structure of these 
organs, and makes its impression upon them. 

As is the case with other organs, that impression 
varies with the quantity taken, with the length of 
time it is used, and with the power of resistance to 
morbid impressions. 

The first effect of alcohol on the kidneys, as it 
passes through them in the current of blood which 
goes to them for purification, is to produce more or 
less irritation. This is marked in some instances 
and scarcely perceptible in others. It should be 
understood that the liver, the lungs, the heart, and 
the kidneys have large quantities of blood carried 
to them to be acted upon by these organs respect- 
ively, as well as blood to nourish them in common 
with all other organs. 

The vessels conveying the blood to and through 



go TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

the kidneys for whatever purpose, are dilated by 
the alcohol, the organs are more or less congested, 
and usually their secretion is temporarily increased. 
Sometimes decided inflammation of these organs is 
induced by this irritation, especially where a free 
quantity of the alcohol is taken, or if in addition there 
is exposure to cold and wet, as when in a state of 
intoxication one is exposed to rain, or lies upon 
the ground. Cases are not infrequent where, 
after a fit of drunkenness and the exposure apt to 
attend it, an acute inflammation results, with such 
impairment of the structure and action of the kid- 
neys as to lead to convulsions and death, or to 
the laying of the foundation for general dropsy, 
and other forms of more chronic but equally fatal 
disease. 

The most frequent morbid effect on the kidneys 
of the long continued indulgence in alcohol is the 
much dreaded and generally fatal Bright's Disease. 
This affection is not always produced by alcohol, 
but all agree that tippling is the most frequent 
cause of its occurrence. In this disease the kid- 
neys, by repeated irritation and a slow inflam- 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE KIDNEYS. 9 1 

mation, undergo such changes that they fail to 
separate from the blood the materials that should 
be carried out of the system, and these matters, 
being retained, poison the brain and other parts, 
causing a variety of diseased conditions and symp- 
toms. The kidneys are in some stages and cases 
enlarged, and in others contracted. They undergo 
fatty and other forms of degeneration, and the 
symptoms produced are dropsy, debility, blindness, 
paralysis or loss of power, stupor, convulsions, and, 
almost certainly in time, death. 

Besides failing to carry off these injurious mat- 
ters, the kidneys, by these changes which they under- 
go, allow the rich portions of the blood (the albu- 
men) to pass through them, thus depriving the body 
of nutritious elements, aiding in the promotion of 
weakness, paleness, and exhaustion, increasing the 
dropsy, and hastening the patient on to a fatal end. 

A particular condition of the kidney sometimes 
occurs, called the Gouty Kidney. This is asso- 
ciated with other symptoms of gout, and is a form 
of Bright's Disease, attended with its consequences ; 
and gout is dependent upon the use of alcohol, 



92 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

either in the individual or his ancestors. Those 
peoples, as the Mahomedans, who, from their relig- 
ious teachings, or from other causes, abstain from 
Kvine and other alcoholics, never have this disease 
so common in wine and beer drinking England. 

Alcohol, in all its combinations in different 
liquors, in its action upon the kidneys, whenever 
its effects are noticeable, produces nothing but 
mischief, and no intelligent physician pretends that 
it serves any useful purpose so far as these organs 
are concerned. 

I remember meeting a prominent medical gen- 
tleman of my acquaintance years ago, when the 
subject of the use of alcohol was introduced. In 
opposition to my own views he contended that, 
when used " temperately," it was not objectionable. 
He said, no man abhorred drunkenness or despised 
drunkards more than he. He said he was never 
drunk in his life, and to the end I presume he never 
was. He never drank in saloons, and very seldom 
at other than meal times ; but his bottle of whiskey, 
he said, was on his table and by his plate as regu- 
larly as his knife and fork, and he always took a 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE KIDNEYS. 93 

drink with his food. His digestion was, he 
thought, not impaired by it, and his sensations 
were more agreeable and his general condition 
better, when he took his accustomed dram, than 
when on rare occasions he went without it. 

As for the example, he said he was not responsi- 
ble for others' excesses, and, in fact, he said he set 
a good example by his moderation. He should 
therefore continue to have his whiskey bottle by 
his plate and use it as he had done. No more 
favorable statement in favor of its use than this can 
be made, and he used it in a manner as little likely 
to do harm, considering the amount taken and its 
continuance, as was possible. 

Taken with his food and mingled with it, and 
diluted with water, though probably neutralizing a 
portion of the gastric juice, it was not applied in 
a concentrated form to the coats of his stomach ; 
and it produced but little or no apparent irritation 
there. It was slowly introduced into the blood, 
and no sudden or strong impression seemed to 
be made upon the liver, the lungs, the heart, or 
the brain. His sensations were more agreeable 



94 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

after each dose, on the same principle that opium, 
tobacco, and other narcotics than alcohol produce 
agreeable sensations. They all produce more 
agreeable feelings than those which are experienced 
when the accustomed quantity is omitted. These 
feelings of uneasiness, of depression, and distress, 
that result from abstinence from the indulgence, 
though produced by the habit, are wonderfully re- 
lieved for the time by a repetition of the usual dose. 

But the alcohol, however taken, must be gotten 
rid of, and a large portion of it is carried out by the 
kidneys. Its repeated and long continued pres- 
ence in them is apt to tell upon these organs ; and 
in the case of this gentleman, in two or three years 
after this conversation, he was reported to have 
Bright's Disease of the kidneys, and soon after re- 
tired from his city work to the country, where in a 
few months he died, in the prime of his years. 

This is not a solitary case. It is rather a typical 
example, and it illustrates the insidious manner in 
which this deceiver often produces in the end its 
evil effects. 



I 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NARCOTICS. 

IN the preceding chapters the effects of alcohol 
upon those organs of the body directly con- 
cerned in digestion, nutrition, respiration, circula- 
tion, secretion, and the purification of the blood, 
were discussed. These all are important organs, 
and the functions they perform are indispensable. 
When these organs are diseased — when they are 
lowered in their vitality and degenerated in their 
structure, in the manner that alcohol tends to affect 
them — the whole system suffers, but this suffering 
is primarily and chiefly physical. The mind, the 
most important part of the man — the feelings, 
impulses, and purposes, mental and moral, the in- 
telligence, the knowing and reasoning faculties, 
and the governing will, are, by the impressions 
upon these organs, affected only secondarily. 
95 



96 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

We come now to consider the action of the nar- 
cotics on the Brain and Nervous System^ and espe- 
cially that of alcohol where its most characteristic 
effects are produced. 

This Nervous System, of which the brain is the 
chief or crowning part, but which includes the 
spinal cord and the nerves, is regarded by all phys- 
iologists as the central and most important part of 
the organism. 

It is the most important part for different reasons. 
It establishes connections and relations and main- 
tains a harmony between the different parts of the 
body, and none of its actions are independent of 
the brain and nerves. 

It would require a long time and much study for 
any one to learn what is well known by anatomists 
and physiologists respecting the nervous system, to 
say nothing of the theories and discoveries which 
still lack demonstration. The brain especially, but 
also the spinal cord, has many curious and delicate 
parts which perform a great variety of functions. 
There are myriads of cells which originate actions 
and receive impressions, and as many minute 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NARCOTICS. 97 

tubes which convey impressions and forces to and 
from the cells to the different parts of the body. 
The details respecting the kinds of actions are too 
numerous to state ; and it must answer our pres- 
ent purpose to say, that not only every organ of the 
body has a ner\'Ous supply, but ever}' minute part of 
a living tissue, performing any action, having any 
power of motion or capability of feeling — every part 
constructing blood corpuscles or effecting secre- 
tions — is furnished with a little nerve fibre control- 
ling its action ; and any wrong state in the cells of 
the brain or the fibres of the nerves causes wrong 
actions, more or less marked, in the parts influ- 
enced by them. 

But besides this, and what is of much more import- 
ance in relation to our subject, the brain is the 
organ of the mind. Eyerything we call mind, 
every feeling, emotion, disposition, impulse and de- 
sire ; all ideas, knowledge, reason and thought, 
and all purpose, determination and will — the 
power to feel, the power to think, and the power to 
act — all that pertains to our character or conduct, 
shows itself, or is expressed, through and by the 



98 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

brain; and character and actions are influenced 
and determined by the conditions of the brain. 
Anything that acts upon the brain and the nerves 
— the appendages and servants of the brain — 
changing their conditions, changes the conditions 
and actions not only of the body but of its immate- 
rial inhabitant, the mind. 

Now, not only the most characteristic but by far 
the most marked action of alcohol is upon the 
nervous system — upon the brain, the spinal cord, 
and the nerves. 

The brain has more attraction for alcohol than 
the other organs of the body. In case of death 
from direct alcoholic poisoning in men, as some- 
times happens by accident, or in animals as pro- 
duced by experiments, more of the poison is found 
in the brain and liver than in other parts, and there 
is a larger proportion in the brain than in the liver. 
But alcohol has not only a special aptitude to be 
in the brain, but to act upon its soft and delicate 
structures, and to change its important functions. 

There is a class of agents, including alcohol, 
opium, belladonna, ether and chloroform, which are 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NARCOTICS. 99 

called narcotics. Their effects are peculiar, all 
agreeing with each other in many respects, but dif- 
fering in some minor particulars. Their action is 
specially upon the nervous system, and upon those 
portions of it concerned in mental operations. 
They are generally described as first exciting and 
then depressing nervous action, and as particularly 
operating upon the intellectual part of the brain. 

The excitement which these narcotics produce is 
usually very brief, and is, often at least, indirect, 
and may be produced by the resistance of the sys- 
tem to the intrusion of an unnatural agent. The 
cause of a fever, though a depressing poison, pro- 
duces an excitement of the circulation, and often 
of the operations of the mind, but neither this or 
the narcotics increase muscular strength or any 
regulated or any useful form of activity ; and the 
excitement produced by the narcotics is soon fol- 
lowed by the depression which is their most decided 
and characteristic effect. Many of their apparently 
exciting effects can be accounted for on the sup- 
position that their entire action is depressing or 
paralyzant. Some nerves excite action in the 



lOO TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

organs which they supply, and others restrain ac- 
tion ; and the performance of proper functions 
depends upon the balance of these exciting and 
restraining nervous influences. Those that restrain 
and thus regulate action are called Inhibitory 
nerves, and when those supplying an organ are weak- 
ened, paralyzed, or destroyed, certain actions of 
that organ are increased, but these actions become 
irregular, and real permanent force is not produced. 
Some apparently stimulating effects are known 
to be caused by paralysis of the inhibitory nerves, 
and not by a stimulating effect upon the excitor 
nerves ; and this is likely to be the case in more 
instances than have yet been demonstrated. But 
whatever and however apparently increased action 
is produced by narcotics, it is irregular and tran- 
sient, and is accompanied by unfavorable activity, 
certainly when the narcotics are taken by persons 
in health, and such action is followed by the charac- 
teristic depression. 

Among the most marked effects of opium is the 
production of sleep, of belladonna the production 
of delirium, of chloroform and ether the production 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NARCOTICS. 1 01 

of insensibility; but the two latter articles, when 
not carried to the extent of causing insensibility, 
temporarily produce the state called inebriation or 
drunkenness. The effect of alcohol is similar to 
tkese, but more lasting, and when carried to a suffi- 
cient extent it likewise produces insensibility. All 
these narcotics when given in sufficient doses 
cause death by paralyzing necessary life functions. 

But these narcotics, even when not carried to the 
extent of entire insensibility, by their paralyzing 
effects on the brain and nerves relieve pain when 
present, opium most of all, and all modify the feel- 
ings so as often to produce agreeable sensations 
and emotions, and all disturb in one way or another 
the natural operations of the mind. 

Another quality all the narcotics possess, but 
some more than others, and that is, when taken 
repeatedly they create a desire for the continuance 
of these repetitions, and tend strongly to the for- 
mation of a habit^ which it is difficult, and in some 
cases apparently impossible, to resist. 

It is not possible fully and scientifically to ex- 
plain the force of the ?iarcotic habits. They are 



I02 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

allied to each other, and to a certain extent one 
may take the place of the other — at least the for- 
mation of 6ne of these habits tends to the production 
of others. They are much more readily acquired 
by some than by others. The children of parents 
who have acquired such habits, from an inherited im- 
pulse are much more liable to form them ; and the 
use of some of the narcotic articles has a stronger 
tendency to become tyrannously habitual than that 
of others. 

The opium habit, though readily formed, is, per- 
haps, more difficult to break than any of the rest, 
but it will serve, in some respects, to illustrate them 
all. A dose of opium produces with many persons 
agreeable sensations, bodily and mental. It quiets 
restlessness, soothes irritation, and sometimes pro- 
duces a temporary elevation of thought and a 
dreamy pleasure. This leads to a desire to again 
excite such agreeable feelings. But the after effects 
of the doses are unpleasant. Depression, uneasi- 
ness, and often pains are felt. These are readily 
mitigated or removed by repeating the dose, and 
the agreeable feelings take their place. This state 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NARCOTICS. T03 

of things naturally leads to repetitions, until the 
indulgence beconies habitual, and larger and still 
larger quantities are required to relieve these 
secondary sufferings and to cause the agreeable 
sensations. 

But besides and beyond this, there is a force in 
narcotic habits not fully understood. Repeated 
indulgence in any of these articles which make a 
strong impression on the nervous system, whether 
that impression at first be disgusting and distress- 
ing, as in the case of tobacco, or more immedi- 
ately agreeable, as in the case of opium and alco- 
holic drinks, produces a fascination and an en- 
thrallment that those alone who feel their force can 
appreciate. A changed condition is induced with 
unnatural wants and propensities, which call for 
and insist upon gratification, however disastrous 
the results. But whether explained or not, these 
facts are too familiar to be questioned and too im- 
portant to be ignored. 

Alcohol is a powerful narcotic and has all the 
essential properties of the class ; and though so 
small a quantity of any of them may be taken, or 



104 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

they may be so seldom indulged in, that their more 
disastrous consequences are resisted, yet there is 
always danger in their indulgence, and injury more 
or less is produced and in proportion to the extent 
of their use. 

Though alcohol has many properties in common 
with the class to which it belongs — has a similar- 
ity of action on the nervous system with the others 
— yet it has qualities peculiar to itself, and its 
more particular actions on this system are next to 
be described, 



CHAPTER X. 

ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN, SPINAL 
CORD AND NERVES. 

IN the last chapter some of the effects of the 
Narcotics, as a class, on the nervous system 
were pointed out, and their liability to produce nar- 
cotic habits was dwelt upon. 

Nothing relating to our existence is more inter- 
esting in Science, or more important to our well- 
being, than the formation of habits. Men are 
sometimes said to consist of bundles of habits^ and 
certainly our habits largely determine our charac- 
ters, our usefulness, and our happiness. They not 
only make us what we are, but what we shall be. 

Habit is defined as a quality given to our organism 
by use. The primary law of habit is, that all vital 
actions tend to repeat themselves, or to become 
easier of performance, and more likely to be per- 
formed the more they are repeated. Every act, 
105 



1 56 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

physical or mental, performed or suffered, leaves 
an impression upon the organ performing it, ren- 
dering the organ more able and more inclined to 
perform it again. There are exceptions to this 
broad statement, but it is strictly true in reference 
to the formation of habits. As we have seen, many 
strong impressions upon the nervous system create 
an intense desire for their repetition, and acts in 
general tend to be habitual. Addison, the essayist, 
long since said, " Do that whicfi is best, and habit 
will render it most agreeable ; " and when we do 
what is worst, habit renders it, if not most agreea- 
ble, at least more easy and more likely to be 
continued. The habitual acts of young people es- 
tablish in them dispositions and characteristics 
which are seldom materially changed, and almost 
never completely eradicated; and the qualities 
thus acquired become so fixed and constitutional 
as to be transmitted from generation to generation. 
It is by this law of transmission that the sins, or evil 
qualities, of the fathers are visited upon the children ; 
and by the same law blessings come to thousands 
who on the part of their ancestors and themselves 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN, I07 

keep the commandments — obey the physical and 
moral laws. A wicked disposition, acquired by 
wicked habits, desires wickedness; and a narco- 
tized brain desires narcotism, and is followed in 
after generations by brains more inclined to acquire 
the narcotized state. 

These facts of habits and their hereditary trans- 
mission are so important as to justify their repeated 
statement in a series of articles intended to convey 
scientific truths which have a bearing upon the 
deepest interests of all for w^hom they are designed. 

But what are the effects, immediate and remote, 
which alcohol, in the different degrees and modes 
of its use, has upon the Brain and Nervous Sys- 
tem, and through these organs upon character and 
destiny ? 

In answering this question it will be well to con- 
sider, Jirst, the more immediate effects of a single 
or a few doses, and then the effects of its continued 
use in different quantities. It should be borne in 
mind that we are not discussing the strictly medic- 
inal effects of alcoholics in special diseases, or in 
the shock of accidents. These are questions which 



I08 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

belong to the medical profession, and respecting 
which those without the profession are not supposed 
to have definite opinions, at any rate, not more 
than they should have about arsenic, strychnine, 
or other powerful medicinal agents. We are con- 
sidering the essential action of alcoholic drinks on 
^ the system without reference to their modifying 
influence upon diseases ; though the opinions en- 
tertained respecting their essential or what is called 
their physiological action, should largely govern 
their omission or use in diseases. 

The first impression alcohol makes upon the 
brain, after being taken into the stomach, is that 
conveyed from the latter organ by nervous sympa- 
thy, or by that peculiar relation between different 
parts of the body established by the everywhere 
prevailing nerves, by means of which an impression 
upon one part produces an impression of some 
kind on other parts. The sympathy between the 
stomach and brain is very intimate, as is well known 
generally, and is especially understood by those 
who are dyspeptic. 

This first impression of alcohol upon the brain 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. IO9 

by sympathy with the stomach, is very speedily 
produced, and is comparatively short; or if con- 
tinued longer, it is obscured by the stronger and 
more enduring effect produced by its being ab- 
sorbed and carried by the blood to this organ. 

This first sympathetic impression, when only a 
fairly moderate quantity of the alcohol is taken, is to 
a certain extent, and in a certain way, often exhil- 
arating. In depressed conditions it often arouses 
the system, and it relieves fainting almost as speed- 
ily as dashing water upon the face ; indeed it acts 
upon a similar principle, though rather more perma- 
nently. It is this sympathetic, transient, apparently 
exhilarating effect that gives the idea, which is so 
common, that alcohol is a stimulant ; though it is 
not so in its direct effect by its presence in an 
organ, as was shown in the experiments upon the 
heart, an account of which has already been given. 

But very soon after being taken into the stomach 
the alcohol begins to be absorbed and carried to 
other organs, and it speedily reaches the brain. 
Free portions of it are retained there, and produce 
other effects to be described. 



no TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

Though alcohol is a narcotic producing a more 
ordinary effect, like other narcotics, by its peculiar 
relations to the vital properties of the brain, yet 
unlike most of them it has chemical or mechanical 
effects upon the brain's structure. From the pecu- 
liar composition of this organ, and perhaps from 
its containing more moisture than other organs, a 
larger quantity of alcohol, after its imbibition, is 
found in its substance than in other tissues of the 
body. By its great affinity for water, it takes from 
the soft, delicate and moist tissue a portion of its 
moisture ; and when the alcohol is free in quantity, 
it takes the water to such an extent as sometimes 
to coagulate the jelly-like matter ; but ordinarily it 
produces a slighter physical change in the brain^s 
structure, but which nevertheless interferes with 
those minute motions which take place in the per- 
formance of proper functions. 

The long-continued use of quantities not imme- 
diately so disastrous, produces various structural 
changes, which are often markedly perceptible ; 
and in chronic alcoholic disease, hardening of the 
brain structure, increase of the connective tissue, 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. Ill 

with diminution of the proper brain cells, thicken- 
ing of the membranes, and effusions of serous fluid 
into the ventricles or cavities, are among the appear- 
ances often found. All these changes are usually 
accompanied with more or less inflammatory and 
other degenerative processes, with a lowering and 
perversion of function, and with premature decay of 
all mental and physical powers. 

But the more common and therefore more im- 
portant effects of alcohol upon the brain, usually 
produced by smaller quantities than cause the gross 
chemical and mechanical effects just referred to, 
are produced by its narcotic or vital^ rather than its 
chemical or physical properties. Other narcotics, 
such as morphine, atropine, nicotine, prussic acid, 
produce their effects independently of any recog- 
nized chemical or physical action, and alcohol pro- 
duces its more ordinary effects by properties which 
do not produce these gross changes. The special 
cause .of such effects — the particular change pro- 
duced in the brain and nerves, is not in all cases 
known. But the fact is know^n that changes in the 
vital conditions and actions of these important 



112 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

organ do occur ; and when enough of the poison 
is taken, all action is arrested and death is pro- 
duced, although no gross changes of composition 
and structure are discovered. Without further 
attempts to explain the cause of the peculiar action 
of alcohol on the brain and nerves, I shall endeavor 
to describe the leading phenomena which we see 
that it produces. 

Alcohol, chloroform, arsenic, opium, or any other 
narcotic or poisonous substance, may be taken in 
such minute quantities as to produce very little or 
no perceptible effect. A single whiff of chloroform 
may make an impression upon the sense of smell 
without any further effects being noticeable. So a 
single sip of wine, or a small quantity of brandy, 
as used in cooking, may impart a flavor, and possi- 
bly cultivate a taste, but without producing any 
other observed change in the organism. 

When, however, sufficient of any of the alcoholic 
liquids is taken to produce appreciable or more 
marked effects upon the brain and nerves, four 
stages of effects may be observed. These stages 
shade off into each other, and are determined by 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. II3 

the quantity taken and the susceptibility and other 
conditions of the person. 

When a moderate quantity, as a glass or two of 
wine, or of spirits and water, is taken by one not 
much accustomed to the use of these articles a 
flush of nervous action is immediately experienced, 
and, as already stated, is chiefly from an impression 
conveyed from the stomach. There is usually an 
increased disposition to motion or to some form of 
action, a greater sensibility to some impressions 
and a more ready response to them. There is 
often, perhaps generally, a more rapid flow of ideas, 
and more agreeable feelings are commonly expe- 
rienced ; and if there be a sense of fatigue, it is 
apt to be relieved. A feeling of coldness, if exist- 
ing, is abated ; and by an impression made upon 
the nerves controlling the vessels of the surface 
they become expanded, more blood is brought to 
the skin, especially of the face, and increased ex- 
ternal warmth is often perceived. 

The heart, by the same nervous impression, is 
generally increased in the frequency of its beat, and 
possibly for a very short time in its force, especially 



114 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

if the person is fatigued, or depressed from any 
temporary morbid influence ; but when the alcohol 
reaches the heart through the blood and is thus 
applied to its substance, the force of that organ is 
diminished^ as was shown from the experiments 
recorded in a previous chapter. This is the first 
mild stage of alcoholic action upon a person in 
a state of comparative health, and all these effects 
soon pass away where so small a quantity is taken, 
leaving only a slight feeling of languor behind. 

In the second stage when more has been taken, or 
when that taken has had its more full effect, the 
alcohol having accumulated in the brain, the flush 
of the face may continue, or become purplish, or 
in rarer cases it may fade ; the temperature of the 
surface may continue, or it may be less, but that of 
the internal parts of the body, as a rule, is dimin- 
ished ; there is now a degree of mental confusion, 
with less precision of muscular motion, though 
there may be increase of the flow of ideas and of 
words from weakening or partial paralysis of the 
regulating and restraining functions ; and for the 
same reason there is a more ready excitement of 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. II5 

the feelings of mirth or anger, of affection or 
hatred, and a more ready and unrestrained expres- 
sion of such feelings. Indiscreet confidence, silly- 
sentiment, extravagance and boasting, are apt to 
be indulged. There is now, in different degrees, 
the condition of " tipsiness." The man regards 
himself as stronger, wittier, and wiser than he is. 
The cares and responsibilities of life rest less 
heavily upon him, and in this condition he is less 
careful of proprieties and of obligations. With 
many the sensations are now more agreeable and 
a sensuous hilarity is experienced. This release 
from care and these agreeable sensations have 
given rise to many a eulogy in song upon the 
** pleasures of the wine cup," and have inspired the 
worship of Bacchus. It is claimed that the feelings 
of friendship are more ardent when pledges are 
made in wine; but it should be remembered that 
feelings of hatred are as apt to be excited as those 
of love, as is attested by the quarrels in the cups ; 
and in lower natures impurity and fights are apt 
to result. In these lower natures, recklessness and 
criminality in this state are common. 



Il6 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

But if indulgence was never carried beyond this 
point, was only occasional, and was practised only 
by men of well-regulated minds and characters, 
the immediate individual results would not be so 
disastrous, though often when the drinking is 
indulged only to this extent, the effects are mark- 
edly injurious upon the health of both the body 
and the mind ; and constantly the short pleasure 
is followed by a much longer period of depression, 
and the sum of happiness is diminished rather than 
increased by ever so judicious an indulgence. 

The great objection, however, to such indulgence 
is, that a taste is developed and a habit formed 
which in so many instances carry the victim far 
beyond these limits, producing results which are 
to be described as we proceed — results not con- 
fined to the individual, but extending to his 
associates, to his family, to society, and to his off- 
spring to after generations. If the pleasure of this 
moderate indulgence were much greater, it could 
not compensate for the danger to the individual, 
and the injury of the example to others which such 
a drinking custom would inflict. 



CHAPTER XL 

ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN AND NER- 
VOUS SYSTEM {continued). 

IN the preceding chapter, the milder acute 
or immediate stages of alcoholic action 
were briefly described. In these milder stages, 
amounting in the highest degree only to what is 
called *' tipsiness," as well as in the more pro- 
nounced stages of intoxication, the peculiar action 
of alcohol on the brain \x\^\xz^^ feeU7tgs of strength, 
of self-importance, and of well-being, which are 
entirely deceptive. This is demonstrable with the 
muscular power. The tipsy man boasts of his 
strength and is ready to use it in contests, but he 
is more readily defeated than in his natural state ; 
and in lifting at weights, where there are accurate 
tests, it is found that every degree of alcoholic ac- 
tion upon a healthy system diminishes muscular 

power, 

"7 



Il8 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

But the more advanced, or third stage, presents 
more striking phenomena. In this stage the man 
is regarded as intoxicated^ or drunk. The face may 
now be purplish, or pallid, the temperature is re- 
duced, the motions of the heart are usually dimin- 
ished, often in frequency, but more constantly in 
force ; vascular tension, or the pressure of blood 
in the arteries, is less ; there is marked failure of 
muscular direction or control, and of muscular 
power ; the gait is unsteady, the tongue is thick, 
the lips and limbs are more or less paralyzed, there 
is sometimes double vision ; and now there is 
more marked obscurity and confusion of intellect, 
and more change of mental feeling. There is gen- 
erally either an increase of irritability of temper, 
or a development of foolish sentimentality, with 
still greater recklessness of conduct, a loss of a sense 
of propriety, and often a disregard of the rights of 
others ; and now pugnacity, brutality, violence and 
criminality are apt to appear. 

When not too advanced, this is the stage of 
brawls and fights, of shooting and stabbing in 
saloons and in the streets, of beating of wife and 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. 1 19 

children at home, of profanity and obscenity every- 
where, and of all the horrors so familiar to the 
frequenters at public places, the visitors at the 
homes of drunkards, and the readers of the daily 
papers. This stage may terminate in an unnatu- 
ral sleep, with restless mutterings, semi-convul- 
sions, or more quiet narcotism. 

In tliQ fourth stage, or that of dead drunkenness, 
there is the full development of alcoholic narcotism. 
The anaesthetic phenomena, or those of insensibil- 
ity, such as appear under the influence of chloro- 
form or ether, are present. There are muscular 
palsies, irregular and stertorous breathing ; feeble, 
often intermitting, heart action, great fall of tem- 
perature, with utter insensibility and unconscious- 
ness ; and the next step is death. Death is more 
likely to occur when the same degree of narcotism 
is produced from alcohol than from chloroform or 
ether, because of its longer continuance. The alco- 
hol necessery for these effects is larger in amount 
and slower in leaving the system than the chloro- 
form or ether. The awakening from the oblivious- 
ness of the more advanced degrees of drunkenness, 



I20 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

whatever may be the sensations and visions in falling 
into it, is a painful reality. Confusion, depression, 
and distress ; and, before the drunkenness becomes 
habitual, remorse and shame are keenly felt in all 
but the lowest natures. For hours, and often for 
days after, there is pain in the head, often sickness 
of the stomach, the tongue is coated, the hands 
tremble, there is frequently feverishness ; and lan- 
guor and inefficiency continue for a longer time. 

With some, in these fits of intoxication, violent 
and repeated convulsions occur ; and with some 
others there is active delirium — crazy drunkenness 
— but such cases are not common. It is a curious 
and most unfortunate fact, that however painful 
these results, however strong the motive and firm 
the resolve not to repeat the debauch, there is in 
many cases an imperative impulse to indulge again 
in the same manner, especially if any, even the 
least, intoxicant is taken ; and in spite of a knowl- 
edge of consequences and the remonstrance and 
persuasion of family and friends, the terrible 
practice becomes habitual. 

The strong resemblance between the narcosis of 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. 121 

alcohol and that of chloroform or ether is apparent ; 
but that of alcohol is much more likely to become 
habitual. The essential character of the condi- 
tions is so similar that the same terms may be ap- 
plied to each. If chloroform is a narcotic, so is 
alcohol ; if one is a depressing, lethal agent, so is 
the other. If chloroform is a poison, so is alco- 
hol. The greatest difference in their immedi- 
ate action is, that the chloroform is more speedy 
in its effects and sooner over ; and its secondary 
consequences are less severe. 

But in studying the effects of alcohol on the 
brain and nervous system, we must go beyond the 
speedy action of a single or a few doses, and con- 
sider the more important, because the more perma- 
nent, effects of its continued use. These affects 
are varied by the quantity used, the length of time 
it is continued, and by the temperament and 
power of endurance of the drinker. 

In its habitual use, four stages of alcoholic 
change are recognized, corresponding in many 
respects with the four acute stages that have been 
described. 



122 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

There is a mild first stage where only small 
quantities are used, as where an occasional glass 
of light wine or beer is taken with the meals, and 
where such limits are not exceeded. In this the 
condition of the brain and nerves is but little 
changed from the physiological or natural state. 

There is a second stage where a change from the 
normal state is more perceptible — where the 
force and regularity of brain and nerve action is 
impaired, but not in an extreme degree ; but where 
the tone of the intellectual and particularly of the 
moral character is lowered, but yet where the 
subject of it is not regarded as a drunkard. 

There is a third stage where there is unques- 
tionable intemperance or inebriety — where the 
subject is called a " hard drinker '' or " drunkard '' 
according to the degree of indulgence ; and there 
is still a more advanced ox fourth stage, where the 
victim is a complete sot, given up to continued 
and extreme indulgence, whenever the means are^ 
within his reach, where there is the greatest de- 
basement, physical, mental, and moral, where there 
is advanced alcoholism or alcoholic disease, where 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. 1 23 

the wretched victim is tottering on the verge of 
destruction, unfit for any useful occupation or re- 
spectable association, a disgrace to himself and 
friends, and a nuisance to all about him. These 
stages shade off into each other with no abrupt 
line of demarkation, but are different degrees of 
the one general process of abnormal change. 
The first two milder stages will require more dis- 
cussion, as respecting them there are the chief 
differences of opinion ; but this discussion will not 
be entered upon until a fuller account has been 
given of the more advanced stages. 

All are ready to admit the very great, the almost 
inexpressible, evils to the brain and nerv^es of in- 
dividuals, to the happiness of families, to the in- 
terests of communities and the countr}-, of the third 
and fourth stages of habitual alcoholic indulgence. 
The changes of the brain usually discoverable in 
its structure, but which more certainly exist in its 
functions — in its actions and tendencies — are 
most profound; and are all in the direction of 
physical, mental, and moral degradation. 

The structure of the brain is changed in various 



124 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

ways from its normal state. It is sometimes hard- 
ened from the increase of its connective tissue, 
and sometimes softened from a form of fatty 
change ; and in both cases the proper brain cells 
— the seat of cerebral action, of physical and 
mental power — are more or less diminished in 
number, altered in structure, and impaired in ac- 
tivity. The vessels are often found degenerated, 
and are liable to great distention and rupture, 
constituting congestion and apoplexy. The mem- 
branes of the brain are often found inflamed and 
thickened, their transparency and pliability im- 
paired ; and, in short, the whole organ is degene- 
rated, enfeebled and perverted. 

Under the immediate effect of the liquor, the 
drunkard is regardless of his duties and obligations 
to himself, his family, and to society. He is in- 
efficient, improvident, unthrifty, unreliable; often 
violent, dangerous, and criminal. When deprived 
of his accustomed dram, he is morose, despondent, 
and often unendurably wretched, with a craving 
for the liquor, which in the perverted state of his 
brain is irresistible. His depression and despair 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. 1 25 

sometimes lead to suicide, preceded, it may be, by 
the murder of his family, with the motive of reliev- 
ing himself and them from their living death. Min- 
gled with this despair are often fits of fury which 
the drink excites ; and his causeless and unreason- 
ing vengeance may be inflicted indiscriminately on 
himself, his family, his friends, or strangers, as 
well as on imagined or real foes. In many cases 
nothing is too absurd or too depraved for him to 
do, and no suffering is too severe for him to en- 
dure. 

The drink which for a time relieved his agony, 
at length fails to do so unless carried to the extent 
of stupefaction and approaching unconsciousness. 
This quantity is therefore taken, and this increas- 
ing indulgence, if it does not induce sooner some 
fatal form of disease, brings him to the fourth and 
extreme stage of habitual drunkenness, which 
usually soon results in death. 

Besides rendering other diseases and accidents 
much more severe and fatal, this excessive drink- 
ing produces several particular diseases of the brain 
and nervous system. 



126 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

The one best known to persons not of the medi- 
cal profession, because of the striking character 
of the symptoms, is Delirium Tremens. In this 
terrible disease the brain becomes so affected by 
the alcoholic poison that all its functions, physical 
and mental, are performed in the most irregular 
and fearfully perverted manner. There is usually 
a premonitory stage in which the patient is restless, 
wakeful, and apprehensive of some violence, mis- 
fortune, or calamity. When attempting to sleep 
he is awakened with frightful dreams which are so 
vivid as to appear to be realities for a time after 
awaking. These and other symptoms may cause 
the patient to stop his drink, but too late to pre- 
vent its effects. In other cases, quite as numerous, 
the premonitory symptoms are less regarded, and 
the full development of the disease comes on in 
the midst of gross indulgence in drink ; but the 
phenomena in either case are similar. The face 
now becomes paler, the surface is covered with a 
profuse sweat, there is trembling in every muscle, 
the patient looks wildly about him, seeing in his 
delusions frightful objects in every quarter; and 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. I27 

though his pulse is weak and fluttering and his 
whole appearance indicates great debilit}^, he still 
moves about restlessly, and often actively, :ind he 
frequently exerts himself violently to escape from 
imaginary enemies. His whole mental functions 
are perverted even more than his bodily ones. 
The most characteristic mental condition is fear^ 
which is always present. His ever-present halluci- 
nations, or morbid imaginings of sight, sound, and 
feeling are of a frightful character. He thinks he 
is pursued by " a man wdth a hot poker,'' that 
"snakes are in his boots," that disgusting bugs are 
crawling over him, that great bats are flapping 
their skinny wings in his face, that vampires are 
sucking his blood, or that demons are about to 
seize him ; and he cries out and struggles in mortal 
agony. He may make a fatal leap from a high 
window, or, escaping from his room, may run half- 
naked through the streets. No condition of men- 
tal suffering can exceed this state. The ancient 
ideas of Gorgons and Furies must have been de- 
rived from this disease, which occasionally oc- 
curred among the wine-bibbers of the time. 



128 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

In this disease, left to itself, sleep and rest 'are 
banished, and death by exhaustion is likely to oc- 
cur in from a few days to a week. Many cases, 
however, under proper management recover from 
2l firsts and some from a second or third attack. It 
would seem from such a warning that the first at- 
tack would be the last — that the cause would be 
avoided. But the desire to return to drinking is 
so great, the force of habit so strong, the self-con- 
trol through brain impairment so feeble, that indul- 
gence again occurs, and subsequent attacks gener- 
ally follow. With each recurrence of the disease 
the chances of recovery diminish, until death closes 
the earthly scene. Subsequent attacks of this par- 
ticular disease may not occur, death following from 
other forms of alcoholism, or from complications 
of other diseases ; but when the brain is so far im- 
paired as to produce delirium tremens, permanent 
reform is almost hopeless, and the victim is almost 
sure to die a drunkard. 

Death to our natural instincts is a fearful thing, 
come in what form it may ; fearful when amid 
friends, and family, and loving care ; made less 



ACTION OF ALCOHOL UPON THE BRAIN. 1 29 

appalling by affection earned by years of self-con- 
trol, of duty done, of virtue, kindness and love. It 
is a terror even when life passes away with these 
surroundings, in resignation and hope, and ceases 
as gently as music from a slumbering harp-string. 
What then must be this dread event to him, who 
drives from his death chamber, or perhaps his 
gloomy cell, by his raving violence or his profane 
mutterings, his family and kin, who may have but 
the tattered remnants of abused affection, while he 
puffs out his last foul breath, a token of the cor- 
ruption within, and nothing remains but an inheri- 
tance of painful memories, and, possibly, of pro- 
pensities w^hich may lead his offspring to repeat 
his career. 

Can it be possible that an article which so often 
produces the effects upon the brain and nervous 
system which have been sketched in mere outline, 
is, as a beverage, ever necessary, useful or safe ; 
or indeed entirely innocent, habitually used in 
any quantity however moderate ? 



CHAPTER XIL 

FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 

IN the last chapter, some of the effects of the 
habitual, excessive use of alcoholics were men- 
tioned, especially delirium tremens. 

Insanity is another morbid condition of the brain 
caused by chronic alcoholic indulgence. The sta- 
tistics of all insane asylums bear evidence of this 
fact. In the list of causes of this most terrible 
of calamities, intemperance occupies a prominent 
place ; but those who have given most attention to 
the subject express the opinion that this disease is 
more likely to attack the offspring of drunkards, 
than the drunkards themselves. These latter cases- 
are not usually charged, in the statistics, to intem- 
perance, though they are the remote consequences 
of it. 

The first attack of insanity in the drunkard is 
130 



FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 131 

usually recovered from under asylum treatment 
and where further indulgence is prevented ; but 
the patient too often returns to his drink when re- 
leased, and subsequent attacks are very liable to 
occur, from which the patient is far less likely to 
recover. Occurring in the children of drunkards, 
the first attack is more liable to be permanent. 
Idiocy, blindness, deafness, and other defects 
of the nervous system are painfully common in the 
children of the intemperate. 

In what is called Chronic Alcoholism, paralysis 
from brain and nerve impairments is a not infre- 
quent occurrence. It takes different forms as it 
affects different parts, and usually indicates such 
an advanced and extreme state of alcoholic poison- 
ing as renders recovery very rare. Fits of apoplexy, 
often speedily fatal in the first paroxysm, and 
almost inevitably so when repeated, are another 
result of intemperance ; and when partial recovery 
takes place, brain impairment remains, frequently 
accompanied by palsy. Epilepsy is another dis- 
ease of the brain and nervous system sometimes 
produced by alcoholism. 



132 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

The term Inebriety, or Dipsomania, is applied to 
a condition in which the subject of it is supposed 
to be incapable of self-control, and is given up to 
periodical or constant drunkenness. 

There has been much discussion of the question 
as to whether this state should be considered a dis- 
ease^ or a vice. That it is a disease or a morbid 
state of the nervous system, there can be no reason- 
able doubt, but it is a disease produced by alcoholic 
indulgence, and that indulgence, while controllable 
and in view of its probable effects, must be consid- 
ered as a vice. 

Theologians generally consider drunkenness in 
all its forms as a vice, and there seems ground for 
this opinion in the Scriptural declaration, " No 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of Heaven." 
But in the case of the confirmed dipsomaniac the 
sin, if sin there be, was committed before disease 
had rendered the person irresponsible — before the 
brain became so diseased as to deprive the victim 
of self-control. 

But whether it should be called a disease or a 
vice, it is the effect of alcohol upon the nervous 



FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 133 

system ; the tendency to the condition often being 
hereditary — generally from alcoholic indulgence 
in parents — but developed into the actual morbid 
state by the indulgence of the individual. 

Whether a disease or a vice, it is very difficult of 
cure, and if temporarily relieved, either by physical 
or moral means, it is exceedingly liable to return, 
and result in moral and physical death. 

Space fails, and the object of this work does not 
require that all the diseases which alcohol is cap- 
able of inflicting should be even mentioned, much 
less dwelt upon. But, after all, it should be under- 
stood that by far the most frequent evil effects of 
alcohol do not consist in the production of special 
diseases peculiar to itself, but in a general perver- 
sion and lowering of vitality which renders one 
more subject to diseases of various kinds, and 
causes diseases and accidents to be more fatal. In 
all reports of the causes of deaths, the different dis- 
eases and accidents are named, but the alcoholism 
which rendered them fatal is not mentioned ; and 
even when the disease and death are caused by the 
alcoholism alone, the truth and the warning ex- 



134 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

ample are sacrificed to what are regarded as the 
proprieties of the occasion — a sentiment of re- 
spect for the dead and the feelings of friends. In 
public reports alcohol and alcoholism do not receive 
a tithe of credit or responsibility for the evils they 
accomplish. 

But as the last subject of these articles on the 
action of alcohol on the brain and nervous system, 
I shall endeavor to notice some of the effects of its 
shorter, more moderate use upon the mind and 
body. 

In some of these cases of habitual tippling, as 
distinguished from drunkenness, only functions or 
actions are perceptibly changed, while in others the 
structure of the brain and nerves is more or less 
profoundly affected. 

Often among the first symptoms wdll be observed 
a perversion of moral sentiment. There will at 
least be an indifference to the dangers of drink and 
a general recklessness of conduct. This is a natu- 
ral result of the narcotic, benumbing influence of 
the poison. There are apt to be improvidence, 
sensuality, an absence of restraint of the lower pas- 



FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 135 

sions, malfeasance in office, unfaithfulness to trusts, 
indifference to the feelings and claims of parents, 
wife and children, and disregard of the advice of 
friends. There will generally be noticed unsteadi- 
ness of the hands, and often of the movements of 
the lower extremities, inquietude, especially if the 
doses be not regularly increased, want of refresh- 
ing sleep, at first fitful, but often more constant, 
particularly when the accustomed amount is dimin- 
ished or withdrawn ; and now the general appear- 
ance and expression of an habitual drinker appear. 
The irregular motions can, for a time, be restrained 
by a decided effort of the wdll. They are worst in 
the morning, especially when the sleep has been 
broken, but are steadied by food and the usual 
dram. Headache, buzzing in tlie ears, irritability 
of temper, cloudiness before the eyes, and, in more 
severe cases, flashes of light and various hallucin- 
ations may follow. There are uncertainty of pur- 
pose, mental instability, though sometimes dogged 
obstinacy, feelings of dread but without the purpose 
to avoid evil or danger. 

Partial paralysis of the nerves which cause con- 



136 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 

traction of the bloodvessels of the face, consequent 
enlargement of these vessels, and redness and erup- 
tions of the face are common. There is foulness 
of the breath, not so much from the simple smell 
of the alcohol passing off, as from its vapor changed 
in character and mingled with effete and decom- 
posing matter from the system ; and if a strong 
odor of tobacco be added to these, the effect upon 
the senses and feelings of others, especially upon a 
wife with delicate nerves, I shall not. attempt to 
describe. 

All this may happen to a steady drinker who 
would warmly resent being called a drunkard, and 
whose friends would feel greatly scandalized by 
such a charge. He may never have been so much 
under the influence of liquor as to be deprived of 
self-control or to become incapable of doing routine 
business. A temporary abstinence may for the time 
diminish his capacity or disqualify him for business, 
and he may readily persuade himself that the in- 
dulgence is a good, if not a necessity; thus he 
floats on into a whirlpool of more degraded drunk- 
enness, or is prematurely arrested by some disease 



FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 137 

rendered fatal by his condition, or his powers fall 
early into general decay. That this is a true ac- 
count of the average tippler, few will deny. 

But it may be inquired, " Cannot one indulge in 
the habitual use of moderate quantities of alcohol 
without all these results?" Certainly this is pos- 
sible and the possibility has been illustrated in 
numerous instances. But is any one in health the 
better for any use — for ever so temperate a use of 
alcoholic hquors ? Is he not the worse, in some 
degree, for such indulgence ? 

This is the only question which remains, and it 
is one which must be determined in the light of 
the scientific facts which have been stated, though 
imperfectly, in the preceding chapters ; by the 
general experience, and by obser\nng the condi- 
tion of abstainers and those who moderately 
indulge. 

The essential effect of alcohol upon the heart 
has been ascertained by mechanical instruments 
of precision, and has been demonstrated to be 
sedative or depressing, and not stimulating. By 
other precise means it has been demonstrated that 



138 TEMPERANCE TEACHINGS 0¥ SCIENCE. 

oxidation in the lungs is retarded and not increased 
by the ingestion of alcohol in whatever quantity. 
It is also demonstrated by the thermometer that 
the production of heat in the body is diminished 
rather than increased, though by its narcotic effect 
the sense of coldness may be obscured or over- 
come. We determine also by chemical tests, that 
alcohol neutralizes the gastric juice when present 
in any considerable quantity and diminishes its 
action in the digestion of food. It has also been 
determined by the lifting of weights before and 
after alcohol has been taken, that it diminishes 
and does not increase muscular power ; but we 
have no such positive mechanical and chemical 
tests to determine its action upon thought and feel- 
ing, upon reason and impulse, upon the intellectual 
and moral operations of the brain. Of its effects 
in this respect we must judge from our experience 
and our observations upon functional manifesta- 
tions, which are not susceptible of the same pre- 
cise measurements ; and here conclusions are less 
capable of physical, chemical, and mathematical 
demonstration. But these experiences and obser- 



FURTHER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLICS. 139 

vations are sufficient to prove to those who care- 
fully observe and correctly infer, that alcohol as a 
beverage, however guarded the indulgence, is use- 
less, injurious and dangerous ; that its apparent 
beneficial effects are deceptive while its injurious 
effects are positive. Nothing outside of physics, 
chemistry, and mathematics, it appears to me, is 
more certain, and nothing in its bearing upon our 
individual, domestic, social and national life, is 
more important. If the views which have been ex- 
pressed are correct, they should be disseminated, 
emphasized, and impressed, especially among and 
upon the young on whom the conditions of the 
future depend. The influence of physical, chemi- 
cal and physiological laws upon intellectual, moral 
and social states is with every year becoming better 
understood and more fully appreciated ; and if this 
effort, the work of some occasional hours snatched 
from other engrossing labors and cares, shall have 
the effect to increase the knowledge of such con- 
ditions and laws, and improve the practice in rela- 
tion to them, its object will have been accomplished, 
and its author gratified. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 

In The London Contemporary Review there ap- 
peared some few years ago a Series of Articles 
on *'The Alcohol Question," prepared at the re- 
quest of the editor of the Review, by some of the 
most distinguished Medical and Scientific men of 
England. The editor states that "- in the applica- 
tion made to writers regard was had only to the 
eminence of position, as giving authority to what- 
ever views were expressed." 

The most eminent, and I think I may say the 
most able and popular, gentleman ^ who expressed 
views favorable to the use of moderate quantities 
of alcohol, manifested much candor as well as 
ability in presenting the subject, and produced the 
most plausible apology I have seen in favor of the 
custom of his circle in what he calls the temperate 
use of alcoholic drinks. His scientific candor was 
too great to allow hun to make broad distinctions, 
as some do, between the different kinds of alcoholic 
drinks — to praise wine and beer while condemn- 
ing whiskey and brandy — but he evidently regards 
alcohol as the same article in whatever mixtures it 
appears. 

He entitles his article " The Contrast of Temper- 
ance with Abstinence," and regards " Temperance " 

* Sir James Paget, surgeon to the Queen. 



144 APPENDIX. 

as the habitual moderate use of some form of 
alcoholic drink. 

I have selected this best argument in favor of 
this practice for examination and reply. 

In making this criticism I shall state as fully as 
is required to give a complete and fair view of its 
every argument made use of in this carefully pre- 
pared article, and as far as convenient, in the exact 
language of the author. 

To these opinions and arguments, and the manner 
in which they are met, I ask the attention of those 
men and women who may have formed opinions as 
well as of the young people whose opinions may 
not be formed, into whose hands this volume may 
come. 

This review of so able a production in favor of 
moderate drinking affords an opportunity of answer- 
ing every objection which I have ever heard which 
is worthy of answer against the practice of habitual 
total abstinence ; and it seems to me I can thus 
add an important supplement to the matter in the 
body of the work. The article commences by say- 



All reasonable people hold Intemperance to be a hideous 
evil, and few know more of its mischiefs than do surgeons, 
who see its baneful influence in multiplying the injuries due 
to accidents and violence and in hugely increasing the 
danger and mortality of operations and injuries such as sober 
people bear with impunity. 

Well may a surgeon in London write thus, who for 



APPENDIX. 145 

years attended at St. Bartholomew's or any other of 
the great London hospitals where daily, and per- 
ticularly Monday mornings, crowds of men and per- 
haps even larger numbers of women present them- 
selves with gashed faces and heads, and wounds and 
bruises of every part of the body received in 
drunken brawls. Most of the women receive these 
injuries from drunken husbands, out of whom 
every spark of gallantry or natural affection com- 
mon to men and brutes has been driven by drink. 
One would think that such exhibitions would create 
a suspicion that a drink which habitually produced 
such effects could not be necessary or useful even 
in moderation. 

The article then refers to the statement of " Tem- 
perance People " that alcohol even in small quan- 
tities "is injurious, or at least unnecessary, and 
ought to be disused, so that by overwhelming 
examples and custom of total abstinence, the crime 
and folly of intemperance may be put down." 

It seems to me that this argument against alco- 
hol which the author has so frankly stated, is so 
rational that it ought to make any one hesitate in 
making an effort to break its force. He says " state- 
ments such as these are confidently made." So 
they are, very confidently, and by an increasing 
throng in England and almost every where ; " but," 
he adds, " if we look for evidence there seems to 
be very little in favor of them, and there is more 
that inclines the other way." 

This is merely a statement of an opinion which 



146 APPENDIX. 

receives its only weight from the source from which 
it comes. This weight is diminished by the state- 
ment, in the next sentence, in which the author 
says, " the whole of the evidence for a comparison 
of the influence of temperate drinking and absti- 
nence on large bodies of men is not sufficient for 
a complete and final decision.'' He thinks it is to 
be settled by future researches. 

It seems to me we have facts enough to settle it 
now, and in a different way from what our author 
intimates. His observations have been confined 
to Europe where there is but very little entire absti- 
nence in large communities to compare with moder- 
ate drinking. Mine, with I think many others, have 
been made most carefully and fully in America, and 
here we have examples of such communities, where 
a vast majority of the people entirely abstain; and 
comparing these with the drinkers . among us, I 
believe — I may say I know — the abstainers are 
better off morally, mentally and physically than the 
moderate drinkers. Our observations are more 
conclusive, as they are positive, while he acknowl- 
edges his to be simply negative. Yet he says, 
according to the evidence he has, he thinks the 
habitual moderate use of alcoholic drinks is gener- 
ally beneficial, and that as between moderate use 
and abstinence the verdict should be in favor of 
the former. This it will be observed is a mere 
expression of opinion without even a pretended 
scientific basis of an observed fact. 

He says we have the testimony of large hospitals 



APPENDIX. 147 

and life-assurance companies against intemper- 
ance, as compared with the temperate use of alco- 
hol, but bearing upon the question of the temper- 
ate use and abstinence we have no statistics. 

In this country there are life-insurance companies 
conducted upon the principle of abstinence, insur- 
ing none but total abstainers ; and I am informed 
that such companies can afford decidedly lower 
rates than others. Some of the largest companies 
in this country now ask the question, not whether 
the parties applying for insurance are temperate, 
but whether they are abstainers — whether they 
use alcoholics at all. We may soon be able to fur- 
nish the author with the statistics he needs. 

In all this the great difficulty is in drawing the 
line between "Temperance" in the use of these 
drinks and " Intemperance." This has never been 
done. True Temperance, in my estimation, con- 
sists in the rnoderate, proper use of all necessary, 
useful, and safe articles, and in the avoidance 
of all hurtful, unnecessary and dangerous ones. 

The question comes back as to the essential 
character and utility of alcohol in any quantity for 
ordinary daily use — of its being a good, or an evil 
thing in the manner in which it is generally used. 
We may properly talk of its moderate use, but from 
the proofs of its physiological action it would seem 
to me as proper to speak of the temperate daily use 
of chloroform, ether, opium or any other narcotic, 
as of alcohol. Our author says he thinks that on 
the whole alcoholic drinks in moderation are use- 



148 APPENDIX. 

ful, but he does not pretend that they are necessary 
or safe. All he here pretends to say is that we 
have no " statistics of comparison '' between large 
numbers who have never used alcohol and have been 
born of abstaining parents, and an equal number 
who have been born of parents who drank moder- 
ately, and who themselves have continued the prac- 
tice, while in other respects similar conditions were 
present. In England he has not found such num- 
bers for comparison. In this country we have 
plenty of the material, but the exact scientific com- 
parison is noj: easy to be made. History, however, 
is not entirely silent on this subject. The Rechab- 
ites compared most favorably with others of their 
countrymen, and they were under a command and 
vow of perpetual abstinence which for generations 
they observed. Admitting the absence of accurate 
and conclusive statistics, are not general observa- 
tion and experience with us in America decidedly 
in favor of abstinence as compared with indulgence 
however moderate ? 

Our author then refers to the opinions of medical 
men and speaking for England he thinks a majority 
favor the practice of moderate drinking. The opin- 
ion of that majority, if there is such a majority, is not - 
more likely to be right than the opinion of our author. 
General custom, acquired tastes, habits and preju- 
dices influence the opinions of medical men as well 
as those of others. But if matters go on as they have 
been going for a few years past, that majority of 
English physicians and surgeons will become a 



APPENDIX. 149 

small minority. Already a statement has been 
made, endorsed by a large portion of the medical 
profession of Great Britain, to the effect that the 
only legitimate place for alcohol is upon the shelves 
of the apothecary — 1:hat it should be classed with 
opium, arsenic and other medicines, and used only 
for modifying diseased action ; and the range of its 
applicability to disease is being constantly re- 
stricted among the more enlightened members of 
the profession, especially among those who regard 
physiological teaching as properly influencing medi- 
cal practice. 

Our author next says, " We have some deduc- 
tions from physiological observations which are 
supposed to indicate a mischief in even habitual 
moderation " ; but he does not think them conclu- 
sive. He thinks the most that physiology has 
done in this regard is to suggest some of the direc- 
tions which further inquiries should take. Since 
his article was written inquiries have taken these 
directions and with results much miore conclusive 
than any that have preceded. 

But our author says that experience alone can 
be trusted for deciding the practical value of a 
deduction from physiology. He seems to admit 
that physiology militates against the use of the 
most moderate quantities of alcohol. This we 
insist upon as now a fairly established fact ; and 
we are even more confident in appealing to the 
results of experience than to deductions from 
physiological experiments. Fifty years ago it was 



150 APPENDIX. 

generally supposed that harvesting in this country 
could not be successfully conducted without alco- 
hol. Abundant experience has shown that the 
very opposite is the truth. The testimony from 
careful observers in the British Army at home and 
abroad, in hot and colder climates, in camp or on 
the heaviest marches, is to the effect that soldiers 
can perform more labor and in every way do bet- 
ter without than with alcohol in ever so carefully 
regulated quantities. The same fact appeared in 
our late war ; and in Germany the opinion has 
been expressed by the highest professional author- 
ity that the alcoholic ration might advantageously 
be replaced by less injurious articles. In ancient 
classical history we learn that the athletes when 
preparing for their feats of strength and endurance 
abstained from wine. 

The author next says that this subject has been 
carefully observed and studied by but very few 
indeed of even sensible people ; but that this very 
indifference respecting it is presumptive evidence 
that the custom which has been permitted to go 
on so long, is not a bad one. He says for many 
generations the use of alcohol has been the cus- 
tom of a large majority of civilized nations, that- 
there is a natural disposition to take these drinks, 
a natural taste for them, and in the absence of 
any clear evidence to the contrary there must be a 
presumption that such a natural taste has its pur- 
pose rather for good than for evil. 

This latter argument seems to be a favorite one 



APPENDIX. 151 

with those who sustain the cause of moderate 
drinking. It is worthy of careful examination. 
Why not say with equal propriety that the disposi- 
tion to get drunk is a natural one with some per- 
sons, and therefore it must be for some good pur- 
pose ? And with the same propriety we might go 
farther and say, the disposition to steal, to lie, or 
to murder is natural with some and therefore must 
be for good rather than evil. Is the disposition 
to take opium good for the Chinese and the 
Turks ? But is there a 7iatiiral dispositio7i to take 
alcohol, aside from the sensations which experi- 
ence shows it excites, and aside from the habit it 
induces ? Heredity undoubtedly has an influence 
in determining tastes and inclinations, but are 
hereditary influences always good ? The sins of 
the fathers are visited upon the children. 

The love of alcohol, or a capability of having a 
love for it excited, is not peculiar to the human 
race. It can readily be developed in other 
animals. Is this an indication that they need 
it? Dr. W. Landon Lindsay of Scotland says 
{British 6^ Foreign Medico Chirurgical Review^ Jaii- 
uar}\ 1874.) : " Drunkenness is by no means in- 
frequent in certain animals, such as the monkey, 
elephant, horse, dog, rat, the common fowl and 
several other birds. They readily acquire a taste 
for ardent spirits and are as apt as man to com- 
mit excesses and suffer from the natural results. 
The general phenomena of alcoholism in the lower 
animals are precisely the same as in man.'' 



J 52 APPENDIX. 

M. Magna of Paris reported cases of alcoholism 
produced in dogs by long continued doses of alco- 
hol soon voluntarily taken, and Dr. Binz of Bonn, 
whose observations were reported in the AthencBum 
of October, 1873, has also studied the action of 
alcohol in warm-blooded animals, and all testify 
that the animals soon form the habit — the desire 
from use — for taking this substance, and that it 
produces the same effects upon them as upon 
men. 

If Nature is so wise and provident as to give us 
and all animals only propensities, or susceptibili- 
ties of propensities which are for our good, she 
ought to have gone a little farther and given us all 
the propensity to stop when we had just enough 
of the good. She has somehow failed in this 
respect both with men and animals. 

The fact that animals readily acquire a taste 
for alcohol and crave its effects would seem to 
prove that it is as natural and proper for them as 
for men. Will any one contend that horses and 
dogs would be better for taking alcohol daily in 
any quantity however " moderate 1 '' 

Horses have been given whiskey before com- 
mencing a race, but horses so treated get beaten. 
Good jockeys do not resort to this practice. 

This whole argument about the '' natural taste," 
indicating that alcohol is useful, is a simple y^/Z^r^; 
and its frequent use by those who discuss this sub- 
ject shows the weakness of the side of the ques- 
tion it is so often brought forward to sustain. 



APPENDIX. 153 

The distinguished author dwells upon the fact 
of general custom, and its presumptive evidence 
that the indulgence is right and best. This I have 
shown proves too much, as it would justify every 
prevailing evil ; but if we can change the general 
custom, which we hope in time to do even in Eng- 
land, and establish the custom of total abstinence, 
the argument of general custom will be on the 
other side, and there will be the additional argu- 
ment, infinitely the more powerful, of the improved 
condition in all which will follow. 

The next argument of the essay is, that in a 
comparison of the Western nations of the Eastern 
Continent with the Eastern of that Continent — 
the former using more alcohol and the latter less 
— the superiority is with the Western Nations. 

It is true that Europeans are more advanced 
in civilization than Asiatics — that Englishmen 
amount to more on the whole than Arabs, Turks, 
Hindoos, or Chinamen. But is this superiority 
due to the use of alcohol ? Might we not as well 
say it is due to the English fog or the Scotch 
mist, or what all Englishmen and Scotchman 
dread, the east wind ? Or may not this superior- 
ity of Englishmen be due to the gout ? This they 
have which the Eastern peoples have not. 

There are scores of other things that make the 
difference. Climate, race, religion, institutions, 
general habits, education, moral and intellectual 
influences — everything is different. More par- 
ticular inquiries should be made. Are English- 



154 APPENDIX. 

men better in India for taking alcohol there ? Or 
do the Indians improve by taking it ? The uni- 
versal testimony is that when the Indians, East or 
West, take alcohol they do worse. The English 
army surgeons in India bear decided testimony to 
the injurious effects of alcoholic rations on soldiers 
there. 

Besides the Turks and others though they do 
not take wine or spirits, take opium and tobacco 
largely. The opium habit is a more inveterate 
habit than the alcoholic, and more likely to be 
carried to a degrading excess. Alcohol is but one 
of the narcotics for which men develop a craving, 
and which they take to their injury. 

If the prevalent daily use of alcohol in England 
proves it a good, the same prevalent use of opium 
in Turkey and China would prove that a good. 

Our author is frank enough to say in comparing 
Eastern and Western nations: "It may not be 
positively asserted that the alcohol does this good 
(to the Western nations), it may be due to many 
other things,'' but he thinks the influence of alco- 
hol should not be excluded. It will be observed 
that this is all mere opinion, and that general 
opinions are influenced and moulded by other 
things than scientific facts. 

The author next compares the people of North- 
ern Europe with those of Southern Europe, and 
the superiority is found to be with the North. He 
says what may be true, that they use more alcohol 
in the North than in the South. This he regards 



APPENDIX. 155 

as another argument in favor of alcohol. But let 
us look at this in the light of the previous state- 
ments of our author. It is the moderate use of 
alcohol that he pleads for. In the South of 
Europe the masses of the people use* alcohol mod- 
erately. They use native wines, weak in alcohol, 
but they take their flask or two every day, and I 
presume about the quantity our author would con- 
sider best. The average man takes quite as much 
as our temperate author indulges in, as I believe 
he takes not more than two or three small glasses 
and those only or chiefly at meal time. 

In the north of Europe ardent spirits are much 
more used, and in quantities all consider in excess, 
as drunkenness and alcoholism are very common. 

Large numbers of the Swedes and others are 
miserable drunken people, and all the horrors of 
intemperance are very much more common than in 
Southern Europe. Still as a body the Northern 
people are more vigorous than the Southern. 
This, according to the reasoning I am criticising, 
would be an argument in favor of excess over 
moderation. It would be absurd to say that this 
excess of the North is the reason of its superiority 
over the South, whatever that superiority may be. 

This excess is denounced by our author as a 
"hideous evil." The inconsistency of this reason- 
ing need not be dwelt upon. Our author himself 
seems to see it, for he adds respecting this com- 
parison of the North and the South : " Doubtless 
in all these cases the result may depend more on 



156 APPENDIX. 

Other conditions than on the use of alcohol ; possi- 
bly it may be in spite of alcohol, but we have no 
right to imagine it." Now it seems to me that we 
have not only "a right to imagine it/' but that we 
have a right to assert that, according to every 
principle of reason and common sense — and ac- 
cording to the reasoning of the author himself, to 
other causes than the use of alcohol this superior- 
ity of the North must be due. The presumption 
is that while alcohol is used in great excess by 
many, after all greater numbers of the people 
use it but seldom or not at all, while in the South 
nearly all use it moderately and constantly, and it 
may turn out that this moderate use, by its being 
more general, is the greater of the evils. The 
Northern people are recruited largely from an 
unalcoholized stock, while in the South there are 
none unalcoholized from which to recruit, though 
they are affected in a moderate degree. I do not 
say that this is the explanation of the alleged 
superiority of the Northern people, but it seems to 
me a more rational view than tha*t suggested by 
our author. Indeed the permanent superiority of 
the Northern people may be questioned. It is 
not long since Italy was the headquarters and very 
fountain of civilization. But bad institutions, and 
possibly the general use of wine, rather than a 
want of whiskey, have had an unfavorable in- 
fluence on her people, and, in accordance with 
some general laws which we may not understand, 
decay has followed. 



APPENDIX. 157 

The article next goes on to say, that the com- 
parison in favor of moderation is burdened by 
the inclusion of the intemperate among the mod- 
erate. That is not the case to any large extent in 
Italy ; but it is a serious embarrassment in Great 
Britain and all Northern Europe, in the United 
States and most other countries where alcohol is 
used, that the intemperate must be included with, 
and cannot be separated from, the more moderate 
drinkers. No clear line of demarkation can be 
drawn ; they shade off into each other, and in a 
large proportion of cases intemperance, in greater 
or less degrees, follows moderate drinking. In the 
nature of the case, from the ordinary action of 
alcohol which creates an appetite and a habit, 
that in a certain, and apparently increasing pro- 
portion of instances, demand more and more of 
the narcotic until " excess '' is clearly attained, 
moderation and intemperance will bear an inti- 
mate relation to each other that cannot be 
changed. This is our contention. 

This is the chief reason why "Temperance 
People" labor so earnestly to prevent moderate 
drinking. It cannot be too often repeated that 
''moderation" and "excess" which we believe to 
be but different degrees of one evil, cannot be 
divorced from each other, certainly in a great 
number of instances, and the line of demarkation 
has never been clearly drawn between them. 

Our author says, if such a separation could be 
made — "if the shortened lives and damaged 



IS8 APPENDIX. 

health, the idleness and bad work of the drunk- 
ard, and all the miseries entailed upon their chil- 
dren could be excluded from the reckoning," a 
much better, or a less evil showing could be made 
for the moderate use of these beverages. This 
must be admitted, but it does not prove, or tend to 
prove, that moderate use is better than abstinence. 
It would only prove that moderation is not as bad 
as drunkenness. 

The article next goes on to say : " Knowing as 
we do the mischiefs that are transmitted through 
inheritance from the intemperate it is hardly con- 
ceivable that if moderation were in any degree 
mischievous its evils should not by this time (after 
a lapse of more than a thousand years) have be- 
come very evident. The accumulated evils of 
thirty generations of men given to moderate drink- 
ing should now be notable.'* But to all hygienic 
evils there are counteracting agencies or the race 
would long ago have become extinct. The evils 
of drinking, however, are not entirely counter- 
acted. When we take into account the number 
of drunkards and semi-drunkards in Great Britain, 
the number of families among the nobility and 
others that have become extinct or degenerated^, 
the number of cases of gout and other diseases 
entailed, it seems to me the evils are sufficiently 
notable. He thinks the evils of moderation, if 
they existed, should have risen in thirty genera- 
tions to the level of two generations of excess. 
He says, a very few generations of excess extin- 



APPENDIX. 159 

guish a family — that '' it would be difficult to find 
a healthy family after three generations of drunk- 
ards/' This is undoubtedly true. The families 
of the drunkards are thus eliminated; they die 
out, and the drunkenness existing is chiefly an in- 
heritance from the moderate drinkers. 

In all conscience, are there not evils enough 
fairly traceable, on scientific principles, to " mod- 
erate '' drinking to be noticeable ? 

The one item of gout, according to Dr. Garrod, 
always due to the use of alcohol either in the in- 
dividual or his ancestors, with the amount of 
suffering it inflicts and of other diseases it induces 
would seem to be quite sufficient to be noticeable. 
But however it may have been with the extremes 
of society, with the aristocracy on the one hand 
and the poor and degraded on the other, who are 
constantly dying out, and are recruited upwards 
and downwards from the middle class, there are 
many in England that have not been constant 
drinkers. Many at least have drunk so little as 
not to be materially affected by it in any way, and 
various conservative and correcting influences 
have kept the race as it is. And as it is^ it will re- 
quire a long time of effort to overcome the accumu- 
lated hereditary force which has so far baffled all 
efforts at extinguishing the intemperance so prev- 
alent in Great Britain and this country. 

The next consideration that is presented is 
this : " That there is a want of sufficient apprecia- 
tion of the different effects of a large and a small 



l6o APPENDIX. 

quantity of the same substance." He refers to 
quinine and arsenic and other substances as pro- 
ducing bad effects in large doses, and beneficial 
ones in smaller quantities. This all physicians 
understand, but they also understand that these 
articles when useful do good only in disease, by 
modifying morbid action, but when given to 
people in any appreciable quantity when in health, 
and especially if long continued, they do harm. 

It is proper that alcohol should be placed where 
this last remark of our author places it, with 
quinine and arsenic and opium, as a medicine or 
poison, and not an article of diet for daily con- 
sumption. It is, like these other articles, a medi- 
cine or a poison according to its use. The well 
need no medicine, and only a suicide should be 
eager to take poisons. 

The next remark is that "further study of the 
matter by competent and calmly-minded scientific 
persons will discover many facts concerning the 
use of alcohol which will lead to the remedy of 
such harm, as even in moderation it may do to 
some persons, or to whole races of men, and may 
lead to its use being better directed and limited 
than in our present customs. '^ 

If the use of alcohol is to continue it is devoutly 
to be wished that some means for mitigating its 
evils may be discovered. 

But I have little faith in any such discovery. 
Physiological laws will remain the same, and his- 
tory will repeat itself. As long as drinking cus- 



APPENDIX. X6l 

toms continue intemperance will abound, and the 
only effectual remedy will be the destruction of 
the custom. 

The essay is concluded by a reference to the 
view that, " admitting that the moderate use of 
alcohol is innocent and may in some cases be 
useful, yet we ought not to advocate and practice 
its use because of the evil that may thereby be 
done to some. 

" Here *' our apparently perplexed author says, 
" I can only doubt.'' 

It is to be hoped that his and many other good 
men's doubts (for I believe the author to be not 
only an eminently scientific but an eminently good 
man) on this subject as to duty may be removed. 

St Paul said, '^ If meat make my brother to of- 
fend " — to go astray — "I will eat no flesh while 
the world standeth, lest it cause my brother to 
offend. We may not all be worthy to follow this 
example ; and one may well doubt whether an 
ordinary sinner is called upon to sacrifice a good 
to himself for the sake of others. It is, however, 
a noble sentiment which has inspired saints, 
patriots and philanthropists. There, however, 
can be no hesitancy in advising that an evi/ should 
be abandoned for the good of humanity. 

Our author adds, apparently to soothe his mind 
in his doubt, " I should think that in this as in 
other things lawful, yet tempting to excess, the 
discipline of moderation is better than the disci- 
pline of abstinence." 



1 62 APPENDIX. • 

When this was written I fear the writer did not 
consider the seductive character of narcotic indul- 
gence to many, and was not mindful of the peti- 
tion which I think he frequently offers, *' Lead us 
not into temptation^ but deliver us from evil." 

As our author comes to the close of his argu- 
ment we find this extraordinary passage which I 
would be glad not to mention for fear it may 
throw suspicion in the minds of some on his calm- 
ness of judgment. He says: "It is certain that 
we have no facts at all by which to estimate 
whether the whole benefits of moderation, or the 
whole possible benefits or evils of total abstinence, 
or the whole sure evils of intemperance would be 
the greater." If I understand this it declares that 
we have no facts to determine which is the greater, 
the possible evils of total abstinence or the whole 
sure evils of intemperance. This is a very strange 
statement to an American who has observed total 
abstinence in many thousands of cases and experi- 
enced it in his own person for a long life without 
perceiving anything that would create a suspicion 
of an injury, but only good arising from it. I 
need make no farther reply to this statement, and 
I would not, for the sake of the author, have re- . 
corded it, had I not proposed to notice all the 
propositions of the article. As a final statement 
allusion is made to the question as to what is mod- 
eration in the use of alcohol, but no reply is at- 
tempted. He however asks how to define what is 
moderation in eating bread, or in wearing jewelry, 



APPENDIX, 163 

in hunting, or in the use of the language of cour- 
tesy. And among his last statements our author 
says, " It is as unreasonable to require temperate 
drinkers to give up alcohol as it would be to urge 
honest people to cease to gain money because 
there are some misers, thieves, and swindlers.'* 

To those who may think, after our discussion, 
that these cases are parallel, I have nothing farther 
to say. 

The assumption of this parallelism, and that the 
moderate use of alcohol is beneficial, and that 
total abstinence is possibly as great an evil as 
drunkenness, is much more than begging the 
question at issue. 

It may be asked. Is this all that can be said in 
favor of the practice of alcohol drinking ? It is 
all that one of the ablest men of England says in 
an elaborate article addressed to the English pub- 
lic and the world, and is as good an argument as 
can be made on the side of the question which it 
attempts to sustain. I have given the substance 
of the whole article, and if the arguments have 
been fairly met and answered, the question so far 
as this comparison of " Temperance '' and " Absti- 
nence " is concerned is ready for a decision. 



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(From the JSf. Y, Weekly Tribune, Nov. 14, 18S3.) 

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CHEERFUL WORDS.* 

lij the whole range of English literature we can call to 
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♦Cheerful Words. By George Macdonald. Introduction bv James T 
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Lothrop s Historical Library. 



AMERICAN PEOPLE. By Arthur Gilman, M. A. 

INDIA. By Fannie Roper Feudge. 

EGYPT. By Mrs. Clara Erskine Clement. 

CHINA. By Robert K. Douglas. 

SPAIN. By Prof. James Herbert Harrison. 

SWITZERLAND. By Miss Harriet D. S. MacKenzie. 
JAPAN, and its Leading Men. By Charles Lanman. 

ALASKA : The Sitkan Archipelago. 

By Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore. 

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RECENT BOOKS, 



Tsiq^siE Walton. By Mrs. S. R. Graham Clark. Bos* 
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Uic flesh which make us all akin. 






